we have a president who is not a politician in the white house and the american people elected a businessman who is now the president of the united states and things are drastically different for us. it is a lot of work. we work nonstop. the president drives a new cycle hourly. therefore, it affects us everyday. the white house is quite an exciting place to work right now. brian how is it different? : doug: from a photographer standpoint, we have a lot more access to the president. i see him more on a daily basis than we did with president obama. sometimes three or four times per day. sometimes five times a day. we are able to photograph him in different situations. some meetings, will science, -- some bill signings executive , orders, things like that. there is a lot of travel involved. not a lot of weekend travel other than to mar-a-lago or bedminster, new jersey. it is exhausting. it is great. it is very exciting. i love what i am doing. i have the greatest job in the world. being in the white house right now, every time i see someone that i haven't seen in a while, that is th

white house invited the chinese president at the time to come visit the white house. and again, this is just one of those times in life when it was clear this might not work. i mean, it was at least clear it was going to be very tense from the beginning. i think it was maybe even clear from the beginning that it was going to go badly. i mean, in the first instance the chinese wanted hu jintao to be given the full state treatment. george w. bush said, no, it will just be an official visit, which is one big wrung down the ladder in terms of protocol and pomp and circumstance. the chinese wanted hu jintao to have a state dinner at the white house. george w. bush white house said, nope, we want you to come, but we're not willing to give you dinner. how about lunch? then an even bigger problem. hurricane katrina blew ashore in the gulf coast and devastated the great american city of new orleans and the bush administration, of course, disastrously botched the response to that hurricane. huh jintao's visit had originally been scheduled for the week new orleans had almost been wiped off the map

minutes president trump will welcome the president of romania to the white house. now the official agenda includes energy, security and trade, but this is also an opportunity for the president to talk to the press with questions almost sure to be asked about new reporting on white house economic worries. "the washington post" reports that several senior administration officials are keenly aware of the risk of a downturn. those officials have, quote, begun discussing whether to push for temporary payroll tax cut as a way to arrest an economic slowdown. it's one of several ideas the administration appears to be considering as the post puts it, the internal discussions reveal growing concerns about the economy among president trump's top economic aides. a reminder that both trump and his economic advisers have spent the last two days denying there's a risk of recession. and they claim they weren't preparing for one, although they also admit they're not ruling anything out. it's the kind of bizarre push and pull we've seen play out with this president time and again. especially when it

pacific on c-span. >>> next nixon administration officials describe events inside the white house in the days before the apollo 11 moon landing. we will hear from two former presidential aides who were in the oval office when president nixon spoke to neil armstrong and buzz aldrin when they were on the moon. >>> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. as people continue to wander in, we're going to get started because we have a hard cue at 8:48. hello to our audience watching at home as well. my name is hugh hewitt, i'm the president and ceo of the richard nixon foundation, it is my honor to well you here tonight to our east room. please rise for the presentation of the colors and the singing of the national anthem by tim kepler. ♪ o say, can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our fla

white house. president trump is about to head out once again, which means he could very well head to the cameras once again. will he cancel another state visit? will he explain why he really canceled his visit to denmark? will he explain why he's backing down from supporting stronger background checks for gun owners? and will he lay out how seriously he really is about pushing new tax cuts as fears grow about an economic slowdown? this just as a new cnn poll shows for the first time in trump's presidency americans' perception of the economy is on the decline. let's get to it. cnn's sarah westwood is in louisville, kentucky, where president trump is headed today. sarah, first on greenland. are you hearing anything more from the white house on the president's decision to postpone this meeting with the prime minister? >> reporter: well, kate, president trump's stated reason for not heading to copenhagen is the fact that the danish prime minister had signaled that the government was not interested in talking about the sale of greenland to the united states. in fact, the danish prime mini

the national book festival, live, saturday. journalists and former white house officials examine the relationship between the news media and the trump administration. in a discussion hosted by the american political science association. this is an hour and 30 minutes. >> all that stuff i said? that was off the record. [laughter] >> i think we will get started. thest want to thank american political science association and sees in for foriding -- and c-span providing a broader environment for what is clearly a very important and relevant topic in 2019. that being this roundtable on the tropic of the trump white house and the white house press corps. cohen. is dave i am a professor of political science -- an actual professor of political science at the university of akron. i'm an assistant director of applied politics. i'm also a board member of the been press club and have over a decade. and i'm a member of the white house transition project, which for those who don't know, it is a nonpartisan effort to provide -- by presidency scholars to provide information on presidential trans

white house, at this hour, another reason for president trump to be worried about his re-election chances. a new associated press poll shows more than six in ten americans are not happy with the job he's doing. a disapproval rate of 62%. and it isn't just the president's tweets or behavior fueling it. trump earns weak marks on major issues from immigration to health care to guns. a bad sign for a president already under growing pressure on the economy. with new numbers showing both that the jobs picture isn't as good as we thought and that his tax cuts, while less effective at creating jobs, was highly effective at growing the deficit. now expected to hit $wool trillion for 2020. perhaps blood in the water. another republican has raised the prospect of primarying the president. >> he's a horrible human being. a bad, bad guy. and every single day, every single day, you, i, and everybody watching us right now is reminded of how damn unfit he is. >> if you feel that way, are you running against him? >> i'm strongly, strongly considering it. these are not conventional times. look at t

, one day after the white house said this was not a thing, president trump today saying his administration is looking at a new tax cut. >>> are the president's recession worries being revealed at 2020 gets closer. >>> as a new cnn poll shows joe biden cementing his top spot in the 2020 race his wife's candid moment seems to reveal the campaign's clear strategy. >>> plus gangsters stripping the jungle of gold and leaving a trail of blood behind. a cnn exclusive on how one dictator is mercilessly trying to -- [ inaudible ]. welcome to "the lead" i'm erica hill in for jake. we have breaking news in the money lead. president trump declaring the oval office moments ago he is considering a payroll tax cut. something white house aides repeatedly denied over the last 24 hours. but he's not considering it because he's worried about the economy. the president insisting that move would have nothing to do with increased fears of recession. instead use the opportunity to once again slam federal reserve chairman jerome powell. pamela brown starts us off today from the white house. >> repo

the economy. on monday "the washington post" reported that the white house was considering cutting payroll tax to temporarily increase americans' take home pay and in turn goose consumer spending. >> according to "the new york post" the talks are still in the early stages and included a range of other tax breaks. shortly after the story broke a white house official responded, quote, as larry kudlow said yesterday more tax cuts for the american people are certainly on the table but cutting payroll taxes is not something under consideration at this time. >> joining us now cnbc editor at large john harwood and "l.a. times" white house reporter eli stoke els. john to you first. larry kudlow in the past specifically 2011 was highly critical of the payroll tax, saying it didn't work. whether it is the payroll tax or any other tax cut why should we believe it? the president was out there just before the midterm saying get ready for a middle class tax cut. we never saw it. why do we think we'll actually see one now? >> we don't. we have a trillion dollar deficit. the administration has ver

being this roundtable on the topic of the trump white house and the white house press core. my name is dave cohen. i'm an actual professor of political science at the university of akron. i went back in time. i'm an assistant director of the applied politics and a board member of the akron press club and have been for over a decade and a member of the white house transition project which for those of you who don't know what the project is, it's a nonpartisan effort by scholars to provide information on presidential transactions and white house operations to those transitioning into the white house. it's very important organization. and it happened to be one of the founders of that organization is martha kumar who i am happy to introduce right now. she's an emeritus professor at towson university and director and creator of the white house transition project. she's the author of numerous books and scholarly articles ncluding "before the oath, how barack obama and president trump managed power which came out in 2015 and managing the president's message, the white house and news media

journalists including the white house press secretary. looking at the relationship to between the press and the trump administration. hosted by the american political science association. live coverage on c-span. an actual i'm professor of political science at the university of akron. i'm an assistant director of applied politics. i'm also a board member of the acting press club over a decade. i'm a member of the white house transition project, which for those who don't know, it is a nonpartisan effort to provide information on presidential transitions and white house operations to those who are transitioning into the white house. it's a very important organization that happened to be one of the founders of that organization is martha kumar, who ai am happy to introduce. she is an emeritus professor at towson university and director and creator of the white house transition project. she is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles howuding "before the oath: george w. bush and barack obama managed to transfer of power." she's also the winner of the apsa 2008 best book awa

>> thank you, good to see you, joe. tune in to see the film halston, it premiers sunday 9:00 p.m. only on cnn. >>> all right. thank you so much for joining us, everybody. ac 360 starts right now. /s >> good evening. thanks for joining us. buckle up because late today, yesterday's presidential flip-flop after tuesday's phlegm, monday's flop on taxes got flipped yet again. that's right. follow along. in another about face as more evidence of a slowing economy comes to light, according to maggie haberman and baker of "the new york times," even some people who once worked closely with the president are voicing concerns he's acting erratically. i'm quoting now. some former trump administration officials in recent days said they are increasingly worried about the president's behavior suggesting it stems from rising pressure on mr. trump because the economy seems more worrisome as next year's election approaches. that's the latest flip on something the president did a 180 on just yesterday. >> i'm not looking at a tax cut now. we don't need it. we have a strong economy. >> so not looking at a tax cut now, and again that was just a day after he said that he was looking at a tax cut now, which in turn came a day after the white house denied that he was looking at a tax cut now. so the bottom line is here's where things stood last night when we left you. the president took tax cuts off the table after putting them there the day before and early this evening larry kudlow, his top economic advisor, put them right back. >> we're looking at what i sometimes call tax cuts 2.0, to improve the long-term growth of the economy. so to clarify again on the tax question, there's no reason why we shouldn't be -- and, in fact, we are -- developing, again, tax cuts 2.0, we're touching base with all the key people in the administration -- >> but larry, it seems the president took 2.0 off the table yesterday. >> well, he didn't. >> well, he did. we have the tape. look at it again. >> i'm not looking at a tax cut now. we don't need it. we have a strong economy. >> so you're keeping score, that's four flip-flops in four days. larry kudlow went on to say that the president was only talking about short-term tax cuts to boost a sagging economy. like a payroll tax cut which the president said he was looking at the day before. the administration just, i don't know, he says the administration doesn't buy those kind of short-term cuts to boost the economy. just seconds later he laid out a timetable for these cuts that he says they are looking at that certainly appear short term. >> forgive me for interrupting, but how soon -- i mean, might we see tax cuts, more tax cuts before the election? >> before the election? yes. in fact, you might even see tax cuts 2.0, which would drive additional tax relief and create additional tax incentives for middle class folks, for blue collar workers, for small businesses. additional incentives, additional tax cuts. and you might see that during the campaign to be perfectly honest. >> so on this notion of short term versus long term, seems like that's nonsense, playing word games unless he's talking about the 2024 elections, which he's not. it's understandable why the white house may be concerned, showing they're concerned. the leading manufacturing index is slowing, shrinking to the lowest point in 119 months. at the same time today vice-president pence tweeted, manufacturing has come roaring back in america. in fact, according to new data from the bureau of labor statistics, the ee other economy created half a million fewer jobs through march of this year. there were with downward adjustments in -- excuse me, nearly every category including manufacturing. one contributor, the 2017 tax cuts that did not work as promised. >> this is our once in a generation opportunity to deliver real tax reform for everyday hard working americans. >> this plan is going to lower the debt to gdp. >> the economic plan under trump will grow the economy. >> nothing drives economic growth like capital investment. >> this will pay for itself with growth and with reduced -- reduction of different deductions and closing loopholes. >> well, it didn't pay for itself. the growth was less than expected, and the revenue hit was so big the congressional budget office now predicts a 2020 deficit of a trillion dollars. a trillion dollars, and by 2029, a national debt that is bigger as a share of the economy than any time since world war ii. which is something you'll recall that candidate trump was all against back when it was the other guy's far smaller problem. >> we have debt on debt on debt. >> we have to get rid of t. >> reduce our 18 trillion in debt because, believe me, we're in a bubble. we owe 19 trillion as a country, and we're going to knock it down. >> we pay it back so easily. >> how? ee it's easy to pay it back. >> easy when you're just talking on tv. not so easy when you're actually president. >>> more now on all this from sneenz kaitlan collins who joins us from the white house. these comments from larry kudlow -- it's hard to see it as anything other than a change to the white house that's saying this week about tax cuts. and the president has been all over the map on this. >> it fits perfectly into this pattern, this week of mixed messaging you're seeing coming out of the white house over whether or not they're pursuing something like a payroll tax cut or not, which has gone back and forth. but, anderson, really what that shows you is that there is a high level of uncertainty in this white house over how to respond to these warning signs that are flashing of the potential of an economic downturn. there's been some disagreements inside the west wing of the president's economic team which we reported in the past. they have very different views from each other. now today you see larry kudlow proposing something like unveiling new tax cuts before the 2020 election, which really truly is not that far away. but, of course, even if that is something that they do try to propose in the next year and a half or so, it's not something that's going to pass congress likely. basically zero chance of passing especially with the fact that democrats control the house. but you are seeing different ways that the aides are trying to give the president signs, they are trying to stave off what could be a downturn or a dip in the economy. >> or, you know, we had the quote from the maggie haberman and peter baker of "the new york times" of former people who used to work for the president, concerned about erratic behavior, or white house officials saying anything about this behind the scenes? >> the fact of the matter is publicly they are saying we're not worried about the economy. when it comes to this issue specifically, they're saying we have a lot of optimism, we don't see a recession in the future. that's what larry kudlow said not long ago a few moments ago. in reality the people behind the scenes are paying attention to what these trends are showing. they are worried about it and they're telling the president that, they're being honest with him and he's responding in kind. he knows a lot of his reelection hinges on the economy. that's why you're seeing the president lash out in ways about the economy. yes, i'm considering this, and then when one aide shows the president that actually, remember, president obama is someone who instituted that payroll tax cut in 2012, that's something the president then came out against yesterday, citing what president obama did. so they're trying to propose all these different ways to stave this off, and the president is responding in kind saying publicly he's fine with it, but behind the scenes aides are saying that is not the case that's happening inside the west wing. >> kim collins, appreciate it. perspective now on the money and the politics, joining us cnn political commentator david urban in addition to being a campaign strategist, a washington corporate lobbyist, defense, transportation and energy companies. also joining us cnn political commentator "washington post" opinion columnist catherine ramble. catherine -- ram pell, sorry. >> it's okay, everybody gets it wrong. >> there won't be a third. what do you marek -- at the very least, mixed messaging. the white house says they're not talking about payroll tax cuts or looking at it, the president says they are, then they are not, then they are. >> i think what's interesting here, the common theme behind this sort of flip-flopping on both tax cuts and trade as well as a bunch of other dumb ideas, i would argue economic ideas this administration has adopted, it always follows the same pattern. it starts out with trump saying, don't listen to the experts, they're wrong. i know that they say this thing that i'm going to do has predictability bad consequence. believe me, that's his phrase, there won't be any costs. china is going to pay for the tariffs, the tax cuts will pay for themselves. when faced with an abundance of evidence suggesting in fact there will be pain, americans are paying the tariffs, the tax cuts are not paying for themselves, he just doubles down, right? and he says, no, no, no, okay, maybe there is like a little bit of pain now. short-term pain, long-term gain, it will payoff in the end. and the solution is more tax cuts. more tariffs, right? and it's like they deserve, you know, an olympic medal in goal post moving at some point. >> david, i saw you shaking your head. what do you make of this? what's your stance on this? >> well, look, so there is so much to unpack. the tariffs, up until this point i agree with my friend peter navarro i believe tariffs in china are working in having the intended effect of creating pressure there in china. also the american consumers aren't paying for it, the chinese -- >> there are four studies that disagree with you. >> can i finish? >> wait a minute. >> the chinese devalue their currency, and they cut prices. tax cuts do have an impact. people invest, reinvest more money. ask thousands and millions of folks who got a thousand bucks in their pocket, what they did with that, if that had any impact in their life. they do have an impact. when you're talking about an election year, you're talking about tax cuts for the middle class, small businesses, for working families, i heard what kaitlan said about send it up to the house and see what speaker pelosi would like to do with that. if the democrats want to vote against tax cuts for working class families and small businesses during election year, they do so at their own peril. to your point, anderson, the economy has been the strong suit in this president's, you know, hand here. a.p. poll recently out yesterday -- today points all people, parties, independents, republicans view the president's performance on the economy much more favorably than anything else. >> right. david, first of all, the president has not been saying what you just said. the president said they're not looking at tax cuts at all yesterday very clearly, although the day before he said that they are. the day before that the white house said they aren't. now today the white house says they are. just from a messaging standpoint they clearly seem disorganized. >> from a messaging standpoint it could be cleaned up a bit obviously. but i don't think -- look, i think if we learned, nothing is off the table in this administration, right? there's one decider in chief here, and until he says it's completely off the table, it's not off the table. so just because -- >> even if he says it's off the table, it may not be off the table. >> exactly. and that makes it difficult, right, for his republican allies in the congress to kind of move forward on plans like a 2.0. >> it also makes it difficult for folks like you to come on television and definitively state what the policy is. catherine, just in terms of the economics of this, i mean, republicans used to care about the deficit. under president obama there were, you know, there was so much focus understandably on the deficit and concern about it. you don't hear any republicans talking about the deficit. certainly this president going after president obama on a much smaller deficit makes no mention. >> well, and the other important point to make about the deficit and the fact that it's growing is that it's been growing as the economy has been good, right? i mean normally you see deficits growing when the economy is weak. the increases we saw in the deficit under obama were related to the great recession. were related to the fact that tax revenues fell. people were using more unemployment benefits and that sort of thing. and we had stimulus measures because the economy needed it. what's disturbing is the deficit he's been growing despite the fact that we are now in the longest expansion on record, which suggests that there isn't going to be a sudden turn in the business cycle that's going to rescue us from these trends. i just want to be clear about the conversation that we've been having so far. business investment is not up. business investment fell last quarter. gdp growth was up for a year when we had a nice fiscal stimulus, when we didn't need it. but it's back and slow to what it was before. job growth is what it was under obama. so this idea that suddenly, you know, trump came into office and like the red sea parted and the economy transformed is just not true. >> david, about the a.p. poll that you mention, i want to point out that his approval is actually i mean pretty under water when it comes to handling the economy, 51 to 56%. that's clearly a problem for you. >> the president's numbers have never been traditionally strong, anderson. they've always operated in that 39 to 45% range regardless. but his strongest numbers are on the economy. so when you pointed out before that people in the white house and others get nervous, listen, james card well famously stated it's the economy, stupid. every president that occupies the white house gets it. this president like all presidents will live and die in the economy. >> how much -- how much of what we're seeing in the economy, catherine, do you think is a direct result of president trump's own decisions, how much is just a global cycle? >> so, presidents generally get too much credit when the economy is good, too much blame when the economy is bad. they can affect things on the margin. and i would argue that the things that he's done that he attributes to -- that he has used to explain why the economy has been growing are basically overstated. right. we had again, a temporary fiscal stimulus from his tax cuts that is now fading. to the extent that he's having an effect on the economy now, it's the uncertainty he's created through the tariffs. he can't control the nine other economies right now that are in recession or on the verge of recession. that doesn't help us. china slow down doesn't help us. but we're not helping china either by trying to make them suffer more. so he is affecting things on the margin mostly through consumer confidence -- business confidence. >> we have to leave it there. catherine, appreciate it. david, final thought? >> i disagree obviously. voluminous amount of red tape and regulations in washington gave businesses a great deal of confidence to invest and expand. and the tax cuts did have an impact. i have to agree to disagree on those two points. >> data suggests otherwise. >> a coming up next more new polling on the president's job approval. the state of california over cars and clean air, california governor gavin newsom joins us tonight on 360. family meeting! busy! well, i'm going to t-mobile and for every iphone ten r i buy, they'll give me another one. but if you're busy... iphone ten r? 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is that something they see as a strength, do you think? >> i think the economy is relatively strong. our debt has been extraordinary as it always appears to get under republican presidents. but generally i think average people -- the people in the middle and below do not feel like they've benefited from the tax cut and all that. i think, look, this election is going to turn on whether you think you'd like to have donald trump in your house when your children are awake. basically, as i said before on this program, our strategy has to not be talking about donald trump. donald trump will remind everybody every day that they don't really like him, most of us. we have to say what we're going to do that's positive, and if we don't do that we're not going to win. >> it's an interesting idea that sort of the trump leg of this will -- urie essentialyou're es saying it will take care of itself. those he outrages he'll continue to outrage. the democrats don't need to waste time on that. that's a given. >> we have to stand for something positive. i don't think we're going to get elected by saying i'm not trump. >> right. kirsten, the last one-term president was george h.w. bush. he struggled with his messaging about relatively mild recession that happened the year before he ran for reelection. do you think the candidates should be looking to that election for guidance? >> well, i think -- so, the big problem that he ran into was he was -- he was basically telling people, it's not as bad as you think that it is. and so that really alienated people because people know what's going on with the economy because it affects them so personally. and so he didn't seem to -- he wasn't connecting with them on the fact -- in the way that you have bill clinton with it's the economy, stupid. he was speaking specifically to the economy and to people's concerns. all that said, i don't know how many lessons you can take from that era and apply them to this era because i think the trump era is so unique and that's why it's so hard to figure out how to run against him. even if you look at this, these numbers, in a traditional era, if you were below 50%, you would be in trouble as an incumbent. you'd be in serious trouble. if you were any candidate, frankly, going into an election and you were below 50%. but when he won, he had the data, you know, on election day, the gallop disapproval rating for him was 61%. so it's hard to know exactly how this is going to play out. does this mean that he's in trouble or does it not? we don't really know. >> you know, governor, i was talking during the commercial break. she was saying one thing to look for is the president is basically now -- we know he's attacking the fed, the fed chairman who he himself, you know, liked before he didn't like him, and now feels i guess a sense of betrayal from him. but he's basically undercutting confidence in the fed. and if the economy gets worse, confidence in the fed is actually something that's very important to try to maintain. >> well, it's interesting. trump really doesn't understand the economy. what he does is watch the stock market and the stock market doesn't always reflect just the economy. so -- but one of the things that does affect the stock market greatly is confidence in the fed. so interestingly, trump never could admit he's made a mistake or anything. he was a problem. he always has to blame somebody else. he's now blaming somebody most people have never heard of, which i don't think is a terribly effective strategy because you can't demon eyes and run against the fed. nobody knows what the fed is. what's going to happen is if he undercuts the fed enough, the stock market is going to lose confidence in trump, which they have to a certain degree already because of the chinese tariffs. so, you know, i think that's probably a losing game for him. look, a lot of what trump does is not calculated in the long term. he doesn't think long term at all. he reacts and he reacts sometimes three or four times in the same day in a different way. and that's why i don't think he's an effective president. but i also don't think he's going to be an effective candidate if we say what we're going to do is positive. i felt one of the things that kristen says i think is absolutely right is that people know they don't like trump, but they have to like us. it's not enough. i mean, one of the reasons trump won with a terrible rating was that hillary's numbers were awful, too. we've got to have somebody whose numbers are pretty good and who people like. that is what's going to beat trump. >> kirsten, when you look at the democratic candidates, this stage, do any of them know exactly how to run against president trump? obviously a lot of republicans thought they knew how to run against him and none of them did. >> yeah, well, there are different schools of thought, right? if you're a bernie or elizabeth warren, you're basically saying, we need to get rid of trump, but we also need to radically change our economy. we need to change our health care system. we need to have a lot of big changes. if you're looking at more of a joe biden approach, he's sort of saying let's just go back to normal. let's go back to the way it was. and i don't think the decision has really been made in the democratic party -- >> i agree with that. >> -- which way is the best way to approach it. >> howard dean, governor dean, kirsten powers, thank you very much. still to come tonight, california governor gavin newsom talks about how he's undercut president trump's attempt to cut pollution on the auto industry and detain undocumented families indefinitely. the sleep number 360 smart bed. can it help keep us asleep? yes, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. and now, all beds are on sale! save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus free home delivery. ends saturday. no boundaries...ns... ...between my skin and my foundation. true match from l'oreal. seamless, flawless coverage in 45 shades. lightweight, super-blendable... i can't tell where my foundations ends... ...and where my skin begins. true match. from l'oreal paris. it opened up so dnmany doors. it's a lifelong adventure finding all of these new connections all the time. new features. greater details. richer stories. get your dna kit today at ancestry.com. motor? nope. not motor? it's pronounced "motaur." for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. for those who were born to ride, hey! i live on my own now! i've got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. unlike my parents. you rambling about xfinity again? you're so cute when you get excited... anyways... i've got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. i can schedule a time for them to call me back, it's great! you have our number programmed in? ya i don't even know your phone anymore... excuse me?! what? i don't know your phone number. aw well. he doesn't know our phone number! you have our fax number, obviously... today's xfinity service. simple. easy. awesome. i'll pass. >>> state of california is at odds with the trump administration again. the two sides battling over emissions standards that the trump administration recently set for auto makers, standard that would all but eliminate regulations enacted under the obama administration. late last month california pushed back against the effort by striking their own deal with at least four of the world's biggest auto makers including ford that would largely keep the obama regulations intact. "the new york times" reports according to three sources that the president was enraged by that move. he's been tweeting that rage as recently as last night saying in part, henry ford would be very disappointed if he saw his modern day descend archts wanting to build a much more expensive car that's far less safely and doesn't work as well because execs don't want to fight california regulators. car companies should know when this administration's alternative is know longer available, california will squeeze them to a point of business ruin. the only reason california is talking with them is the feds are giving them a far better alternative which is much bet effort for consumers. earlier i spoke with california governor gavin newsom who has gotten under the president apartments skin on this on his fight with the environment as well as immigration. >>> governor newsome, these tweets now from the president about ford and your state, it's essentially one out of dozens of attacks we've seen from the president just over the last couple days. i'm wondering just watching him insult people, divide religious groups, reverse course over and over again, what do you think is going on? do you think something different is going on? >> i'll leave that to more objective observers. but there's something that's serum going on as it relates to the work we're doing here in california. he's losing and we're winning. this is donald trump feeling the pressure, the reality is setting in, and he's feeling more and more that he needs to change course but he doesn't know how to move because he can't move off his base. and it's remarkable, particularly as it relates to the vehicle emissions question, that he is out there making a case that he's helping the automobile manufacturers when they're saying he's doing just the opposite. >> it seems like -- certainly in ford's case and the other auto makers who you have made deals with, that they kind of see the future and they know where the future is going. the president is now using the argument and the epa and others are using the argument that what you're doing is actually going to end up killing more people because it will end up with more cars on the road in the future. and that it's going to have very little impact on the environment, which is obviously very hard to or make that argument. >> i mean, it's honestly rather pathetic arguments and they fly in the face of reality. there's no objective observers that can make that case. at the end of the day, you're right, he's arguing against innovation. he's arguing against competitiveness. he's arguing against the future. one thing we all know, if you don't invest in the future, you're not going to do very well there. as it relates to automobile manufacturers, they understand where the rest of the world is going. where china is going. where india, japan are going. where the american consumer is going. and where mother nature is taking us, and that's into a lower carbon, green growth future. and california wants to lead the way in the absence of the president of the united states himself. >> what do you think the reason he is doing this is? is it personal? is it political in that he thinks a higher car price perhaps initially because cars that are electric usually are more expensive, although that will probably change over time, is it worries about the economy? what is it? >> well, is it the oil companies? i mean, at the end of the day you have to ask yourself not only that question, but who is the only one to really benefit? if the car companies themselves are saying we're not going to benefit, we have to compete globally, we have to compete for the american mind share, meaning where consumers want us to go which is alternative fuels and less cost at the gas pump. the only objective way of answering that question is, yeah, it's personal because obama set this rule, and he wants to roll back everything the obama administration achieved as it relates to climate. and number two, it helps the oil companies. and significantly, by the way, so, by one estimate 320 billion gallons of oil will be consumed. that's the delta between the california rules and where he wants to go. there is no other beneficiary except the oil companies themselves. >> i also want to ask you about the trump administration's proposal to detain undocumented families together indefinitely which set a 20 day floor instead of a 20-day limit for holding children. your argument is push back against the policies. is there anything as a state you will do to try to combat the new rule if it goes into effect? >> we're going to join many other states probably as early as next week, and i think we'll file our 58th lawsuit against the administration. and i don't say that proudly. the overwhelming majority of that is just protecting the values we hold dear in our state. this one has national significance. seven young children have died since trump was inaugurated as president of the united states. not one died over eight years under president obama's stewardship. the family separations happened under this administration. we saw the public charge assault last week which is family separation by other means, and now here we are detaining some children indefinitely. it's an assault on the flores decision. clearly i think it will be rejected by the courts. and the answer to your question is california will once again assert itself in the court of law. >> governor gavin newsom, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks. thanks for having me. >> more to come tonight after the massacre in ohio. the governor promised reforms including background checks on most firearm purchases. we'll see what the governor says about whether he can keep his promises just as the white house is flip-flopping on their own. 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[ crowd chanting ] >> do something. do something. >> do something is what some of the crowd were yelling. the governor has now proposed red flag laws he supported in the past, increased resources for mental health care, increased penalties for crimes committed with guns and increased background checks for all firearm sales in ohio with some exception between family members. the governor joins me now. thank you so much for being with us, governor. >> thank you. >> how likely is it that the proposals you've put forward might actually pass the state legislature? because governor kasich had proposed some of these same things toward the end and they didn't go anywhere. >> anderson, i think we can get them all passed. it's not going to be easy, but when i propose them, the tape you played was on sunday night. a tragedy occurred, of course, sunday morning. on tuesday morning we put a package together. some of the things frankly we had been working on sometime. it was time to get them out. you know, if you take, for example, what you refer to as the red flag law, we like to call it a personal protection order. but what's different between what i have proposed and what governor kasich has proposed is we spent about three months working with our second amendment friends to try to come up with something that would assure due process, that no one's gun would be yanked away from them except by going into court and proving that they were a danger to themselves or a danger to others. we think we've got a very good proposal. we think we're going to get good support from our second amendment friends on that. we think we can get it done. >> it's been pointed out before, you're obviously threading a needle here. you're walking a fine line between, you know, some sort of action on guns and the concerns of gun owners in your state. were you disappointed that the president seems to have already backed off of talk of what he termed meaningful background checks? >> let me be real frank, anderson. you know, i'm really focused on what we can do in ohio. this morning the mayor and i were together. we put together a group of pastors, ministers in dayton, over 100 of them. we did that so i could explain to them what my proposals were and they're comprehensive. as you said, they involve a lot of different things. certainly help with people to identify people who have a mental health problem early, early on, as a key component of that. but we have very good support from that group. it is a very diverse group. every religion frankly in the dayton area. we're building a grassroots support. and i think that as we explain and people see the actual language and legislators can look at this and see that, look, there is a protection in there, you do have to go to court. the burden is upon the prosecutor to prove that this person is a danger to themselves or danger to others, and to prove the other elements that are in there. >> right. >> i think that people will say, look, that is due process. and i can accept that because -- our friends for the second amendment, everybody agrees we have some people out there, anderson, who we have to separate from their guns. i mean, for their own protection and for the protection of others. i think everybody agrees with that. the question is how we do it. >> right. i understand you saying obviously you're the governor of ohio, you have a lot to focus on. you were a senator, though, and as a citizen of the country, is there something that can only be done at the national level that you would like to see done at the national level? because back when you were in the senate, i think in the 1990s, you supported the assault weapons ban waiting period at gun shows. i know back then you got an f-rating from the nra. they now -- they back you in your -- to become governor, they actually endorse you. you had an evolution on that. but at the national level is there something you would like to see done? >> well -- >> that would help you in the state? >> i don't know if anything would help us or not help us. i'm focused on what i can get done here. if you look, though, at issues such as number of rounds allowed or if you look at issues such as what kind of guns are allowed, those, if they're going to be addressed and they should be addressed that protects people's constitutional rights. but if you're going to address them at all, it seems to me it has to be done at the national level. >> governor, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. >> there is much more ahead. the amazon rain forest is burning. a number of fires have broken out. what it could mean for the world -- that's right, the world -- next. family meeting! busy! well, i'm going to t-mobile and for every iphone ten r i buy, they'll give me another one. but if you're busy... iphone ten r? 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i don't know about hourly. but often. sarah sanders announced today she is boarding judge jeanine's trial and joining, try contain your shock, fox news as a contributor. that's right. sanders brings a wide range of skills to her new post. she's a double threat. she goes from stone walling all the way to lying. >> the president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. >> knock the crap out of them. seriously. okay? just knock the hell -- i promise you, i will pay for the legal fees. >> anything quite the contrary. >> we're not allowed to punch back anymore. i love the old days. do you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? they would be carried out on a stretcher, folks. >> and he was simply that you aring back and defending himself. >> he'sing was out like big high fives, smiling, laughing. i would like to punch him in the face. >> i'm going to punch him in the face. i don't think -- never punched anybody. he's not a tough guy. nor am i. i would not know what to do. i don't go around saying i'm going to punch him in the face with my hands. i don't know why i'm talking like that. trump. he would have gone to vietnam thanks to his bone spurs. he would make a good general according to himself. but sarah sanders bringing her looking glass over to fox news, ready to make some magic with all his friends. lou dobbs, hannity, grumpy, sneezy. sanders' announcement came a day after we learned that her predecessor sean spicer who might be the first of the three stoongs to ever become press secretary. i don't have confirmation on that. people are talking. people have said that. a lot of people are talking about it. you know it. they know it. sean spicer will be on the new season of "dancing with the stars." oh, yeah, one, two, cha, cha, cha! >> straight from the briefing room is sean spicer. >> i was kicked out of band in the sixth grade. the quote was you have the sense of beat of a steam roller. >> delightful! delightful! grim, just grim. he's come a long way. it seems like 30 years ago that he got into the press room. >> this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. both in person and around the globe. >> i still don't even know how you get a jacket to do that. it is like it was actually trying to escape from his body. by the way, president trump who reportedly pays little attention to intelligence briefings but apparently does follow "dancing with the stars" tweet his support tonight. he's really busy. he has a lot of things to do but he was able to tweet his support saying spicer is a terrific person who loves our country dearly. if you've been wondering what sean spicer has been up to since he got laughed out of the white house, which you probably haven't been wondering, he also had a gig for special corn for the night entertainment stores "extra!" >> now from the white house to "extra" correspondent. >> former white house press secretary sean spicer is landing exclusive interviews with the nation's biggest power players. >> do you bring work home? >> what a question? do you bring work home? spicy! i wonder what the answer was. we're not going to play the answer? you'll have to look it up. so yeah. that's what he's been doing apparently. apparently the middle square on hollywood squares. that's not even a thing anymore of the he can't even do that. and i have to say mario lopez is lucky he went to "access hollywood." sean spicer might get into an anchor gig. live off the taxpayers and you, too, can get a job on television. in the meantime, you can catch sean spicer, sarah huckabee sanders each doing their version of the fox trot on the ridiculi ridiculist. >> thank you. i am chris cuomo and welcome to prime time. there's a wild story breaking on our watchful take look at the internet. put in patrick burn overstock.com. everyone is talking about it. don't do it now. keep watching. we're trying very much to get mr. burn ready to be in position at a studio to tell you this story. the ceo of overstock. he just resigned today. and he says the reason towed was he didn't want to get the company involved with certain government mat herters that he' been involved with. like what? he said he was involved with a russian spy named maria butina. she had a romantic affair but then government came in and asked him to be involved in that and all the other operations involved in the election

i wish we could be meeting you. thank you for your guidance about el paso. appreciate it. >> thank you, lawrence. >> thank you. "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts right now. >>> tonight a white house aid says the president was a rock star during the hospital visits today perhaps forgetting for a moment he was there for the wounded and loved ones of the dead. the white house puts out a video showing off the president as the president attacks democrats as the politics around these mass shootings have become even more toxic. also tonight, the pressure increases on congress to do something, democrats say they want the republicans to come to the table and the attacks have lit up the campaign trail with joe biden out in front today with a full on attack of his own against donald trump, all of it as "the 11th hour" gets underway on a wednesday night. ♪ >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters in new york. day 930 of the trump administration as the president visited two american cities, both trying to recover from gun violence with a combined death toll of 31 souls. dayton ohio, el paso texas hosted the president in both places people made it clear it was under protest while in both places and as he traveled to both cities, the president attacked his enemies, aired grievances and in one case went after one of his hosts. it started with broad signs aimed at beto o'rourke and he continued then prior to boarding the helicopter and leaving the south lawn. >> what do you say to your critics that believe the rhetoric about white nationalist? >> my critics are political people that are trying to make points in many cases they are running for president and very low in the polls. i am concerned about the rise of any group of hate. i don't like it. any group of hate i am whether it's white supremacy, whether it's any other kind of supremacy, whether it's antifa, whether it's any group of hate i am very concerned about it and i'll do something about it. >> [ indiscernible question ] >> no, i don't think my rhetoric has at all. i think my rhetoric brings people together. >> the first stop was dayton, ohio and the miami valley hospital where the wounded remain. these pictures were posted to the white house twitter account, the traveling press core was not allowed to cover the president's hospital visit. tonight, white house press secretary stephanie tells nbc news that decision was to prevent reporters from covering the hospital visit made out of consideration for patients, families and staff. afterwards, the major of dayton an ohio democratic senator shared brown who met with the president told reporters what they told trump about gun legislation. >> if the president tells the congress pass an assault weapon ban, if the president says pass legislation for universal background checks, the republican congress and the senate will move on it and the house will undoubtedly move on it. we can do that. he was comforting and he did the right things and melania did the right things, people at the hospital were terrific and people showed when the president of the united states came, they showed respect for the office and a number of them said to me they are not great admirers of them but showed respect. >> i think the victims and first responders were grateful that the president of the united states came to dayton. >> not long after that senator brown and the mayor were attacked by both trump and a white house aid who were then on board air force one on the way to el paso. first there was this from white house aid quote, very sad to see ohio senator brown and dayton mayor lying and completely mischaracterizing what took place with the president's visit to miami valley hospital today. they were disgraceful politicians doing nothing but politicizing a mass shooting at every turn they can. the president was treated like a rock star inside the hospital. a few minutes later, the president followed with his own, i saw failed presidential candidate zero percent sheriff brown and mayor whaley, after i left el paso was a fraud and bore no resemblance of what took place again going after the dayton mayor and ohio senator. >> president trump, you said today was about healing and unity and you attacked a number of critics with president biden and senator brown and mayor whaley and members of the media. >> they shouldn't be politicking today. with sheriff brown and the mayor whaley, can we go in and make the tour with you? i said yeah, let's do it. i took them in. at their request. we made the tour. they couldn't believe it. she said it to people. he said it to people. i get on air force one where they have a lot of televisions. i turn on the television and they are saying well, i don't know if it was appropriate for the president -- et cetera, et cetera. the same old line. very dishonest people and that's probably why he got about zero percent that he failed as a presidential candidate. >> and as one more than one news outlet pointed out today, all of today was in contrast to the teleprompter version of the president the nation got to see this past monday of this same week. >> now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside so destructive and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion and love. >> here with our lead off discussion on a wednesday night, michael crowley who remains in el paso tonight and in washington annie carney. both are white house correspondents from "the new york times" and president and ceo of vote latino. good evening. michael, i'd like to begin with you as you are there and we are not, what's been the response to the president's visit that you've been able to gather? >> well, brian, you know, i would say even before the president was here today there was tension here at the site, the memorial site near the walmart. i witnessed an argument erupt when a woman showed up in a red make america great again hat and she and some other trump supporters got into an argument really nasty argument with trump critics here. it's actually a peaceful scene now. there was singing and music in the background behind us, but i do think there is also a sense here of a certain bewilderment as i think there is in large parts of the country about the way president trump handled this kind of classic almost ceremonial presidential role of coming to try to heal and comfort and console in theory but in reality lashing out at his critics on his way back home he posted several tweets attacking the news media and democrats. it seems that president trump just can't stop attacking and can't let go of his anger even after having promised to try to bring unity and peace and love in the wake of these tragedies. >> yeah, i've covered too many of these and the cities are for that moment in time the saddest places on earth. you said something to our producers that struck me as so important. i'm going to quote you, back to you, about the president you said his lens for understanding what happened is whether people praised him or praised the presidency and we saw that with the readouts from his staff on the ground in realtime as well as his comments. what do you think set him off specifically today? >> well, first of all, we saw him, his take away of a good event was that as he said to the reporters on the trip, people are excited to celebrate the presidency in the office of the president. it is always through looking at how he received, it actually reminded me of when he went to puerto rico after hurricane maria and he most famously threw paper towel rolls and gave him self-a grade saying we get an a plus. it was not about consoling or looking at other people, it was how the event reflected on him and that was evident again here today. in terms of what set him off, i think nothing set him off. this is where he lives and i think what the trip was designed with aids understanding that this is where his head is at and that's why he was in and out of both cities very quickly. the events were private. there was not a lot of opportunities for him to speak but he finds the cracks where he can on twitter, on the plane rides, quick back and forth with reporters. it's impossible to keep him completely under seal, but i think that there was an awareness that if he spoke, these tensions and these attacks were what was on his mind and that's why the trip was high stakes for the white house. >> maria, it's a weighty charge when a democratic member of congress from el paso says the president put a target on the backs of people there. so the president had a charge to fulfill today in your view, did he fulfill his office today? >> sadly president trump fails to unite the country the moment he stepped into the oval office and drastically failed? not only was the moment that landed in el paso the most largest i.c.e. raids with over 680 people were hauled out and out of the mississippi food processing plant. children with back pages and the president can't get it together. he cannot bring together a country who is grieving? brian, this, what happened in el paso this weekend, this is the latino's community of 9/11. this was sadly the thing every latino feared would happen. we need a president that could help us heal and how do we move forward and completely absent. i don't -- as annie said, he doesn't have that capacity. he is not empathetic. he does not have the ability to actually understand how much fear he is actually bringing upon the american people specifically to the latino community. and other communities of color. >> michael crowley, this is reporting tonight thoroughly sourced by "the washington post" that said the nra chief wayne la pierre spoke with the president and said it would not be popular among trump supporters according to officials that spoke on the condition of anonymity and he also argued against the bill's merits, the official set. michael, pick your opinion poll, most of them are around 94% of popular public support for this and i guess this nicely raises the curtain for the next legislative drama. >> that's right, brian. it will be interesting to see how the president proceeds. after the parkland shooting, he specifically made reference to the nra and said senators were too to the nra and we learned the nra had been in touch with the white house. so if he changes course as a result, it wouldn't be the first time he did so after consulting with the nra. i want to add one other thing, brian. there is a lot of focus on the chronology of what happened during the trip. i thought maybe the most significant thing today was before the president even departed when he was asked about white supremacy in america, he again seemed to draw equivalence between racialism on the right and his view on the left. he actually didn't really make a strong effort to condemn white supremacy as a serious and growing problem in the country as many current and former law enforcement officials think it is. he suggested there is extreme mism on all sides as he did after charlottesville and, you know, i thought that was really striking and shows that on that score the president's remarks on monday, i think were more of an aberration than a sign of what he's really thinking and how he's going to proceed. >> indeed a drama playing out on the air at fox news with tucker charleston saying the white supremacy story is mostly a hoax and sheppard smith today saying it's something that is very real. the president attacking sheppard smith today on fox news and twitter. arnie carney, a dual question for you. who in the west wing believes today's trip both stops were a success and why does the twitter account read so much like trump's down to the capization of a phrase like rock star? >> well, two reasons. one is that he manages the social media for the white house and a lot of tweets we see from trump's twitter feed are written by him. so sometimes what we see in the trump feed is dan and he knows the voice of the president and he echoes it on his own. a lot of the aids, he was a former golf caddy at trump organization who has been with the president forever. i think people who have been in his orbit for a long time have become part of this cult mentality as i've heard it put by others who want reflect to the president how he wants to be seen and i think that dan's tweets are again the phrase now of audience of one, he mr. trump wanted to be seen as a rock store and dan echoed that to the world. >> wow. maria teresa, the role falls to you to be the political sage and sum up where we are. people are always wondering if we've arrived at the a turning point. is this in your view a moment? >> i think it is a moment, a watershed moment for all americans. when we started warning that trump was racist and a danger to the country, i think people didn't really take it so seriously but now we have a lit litney of individuals inspired by this president to actually cause harm whether we're talking about individuals that decided they wanted to go and shoot up people in a synagogue innocently or an individual that decided that it was a great idea to send our leaders and our folks in our media pipe bombs because they were inspired by this president but then they inspired this individual, the president inspired someone to jump in their car in dallas and drive ten hours to one of the safest cities in our country to shoot up a city that is 85% latino blaming them for an invasion infestation quoting the president in their manifesto. they are not kidding around. the dark web is not kidding around and getting inspired because he's not denouncing the hatred being spewed against the community and i believe that the american people not only are afraid but they also don't want to live under this idea that we are constantly under siege and my hope is we come together as a country and recognize our strength. biden today the way he addressed the country is right on. we're stronger together. we have a brighter future and this president, the reason he cannot meet the moment as a man is because he created this moment where we are today. >> maria, thank you for rise to that challenge and thanks to two of the best of the "new york times." thank you-all for taking part tonight and coming up for us with people begging lawmakers to do something, democrats focus on the one republican leader they say is in their way and later, the issues of domestic terrorism, gun control have become dominating topics out on the 2020 campaign trail. today some candidates were intensifying their attacks against the incumbent as "the 11th hour" is just getting started on this wednesday night. here, it all starts with a simple... hello! -hi! how can i help? a data plan for everyone. everyone? everyone. let's send to everyone! [ camera clicking ] wifi up there? -ahhh. sure, why not? how'd he get out?! a camera might figure it out. that was easy! glad i could help. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. >>> sherrod brown of ohio with the president today. democrats trying to ramp up pressure with mitch mcconnell to vote on background check bills passed by the house this year. earlier today, 213 house democrats sent mcconnell a letter urging him to call the senate back into session, cut the session short and letter reads in part quote, in february the democratic house majority took swift action to pass the bipartisan bills that save lives but has the support of more than 90% of the american people. since that time you have allowed more than 150 days to pass and countless lives have been lost including those most recently lost in gilroy, california, el paso, texas, dayton, ohio, chicago, illinois and the many others who will never make the headlines. back with us on the broadcast again tonight is congresswoman deb holland democrat of the state of new mexico who signed that letter to senator mcconnell with her brother and sister dm democrats. she's in el paso tonight. because it's a neighboring state to you, how does that city feel tonight post donald trump's visit? >> so, the city remains -- so vibrant. everybody is showing support to one another. i don't think donald trump could dampen the mood of the citizens of el paso supporting one another and knowing how much it means to be a community and be together tonight. >> do you think there is a real chance you as a house democrat will be called back to washington early for anything related to this? do you think there is a real chance the senate gets called back early? >> you know, i feel like we have to try everything, brian. it's our responsibility to legislate. house democrats as soon as we got sworn no started working on the bills because we know how important it is to the country and the president of our country and it seems like senator mcconnell is not putting the american people first, he's putting his own campaign first, the nra first, i hope that he convenes the senate again. it's so important we get the bills passed and i think we should keep putting pressure on him. people's lives are at stake. we need to do something about these tragedies in our country. they will not let up. he can do something about it. he's choosing not to. >> the house member that represents el paso said that the president has placed a target on the backs of actual americans, do you concur with that notion? >> i do, i do. it's all there on tape. you can rewind comment after comment after comment that the president has made disparaging people of color calling the poor immigrants, the moms and children coming across the border as they are infesting our country. he has used so many horrible terms to describe people who are only coming here because they have no alternative. it's terrible that he dispargs people who don't apparently look like him, it's happened time and time again. he can't deny it and i do agree with my colleague congresswoman escobar and seen it, the proof is here for the shootings that happened this past weekend right here in el paso. he is influencing people, this domestic terrorism that has fueled so many people to grab guns and shoot them on innocent people. it's terrible. it's heart wrenching. and i hope the president looks in the mirror to see that he needs to be a president for a change. >> knowing that your work there in your neighboring state involves walking around talking to people and comforting people, we wish you luck in that. congressman deb holland in new mexico, thank you for joining us from texas tonight. >> thank you, brian. >>> coming up, calls for gun reform intensify as we mention, so does the push back for the nra but the gun advocacy group is dealing with its own set of problems, a politzer prize winning reporter covering the internal troubles of the nra is with us to talk about it when we come back. >>> according to a new report from "the washington post", the ceo of the nra wayne la pierre wanted the gun lobby to buy him a $6 million house in texas in part for fears for safety after the parkland school shooting last year. the report la pierre told associates he was worried about being targeted after the parkland shooting. they report quote, la pierre and his wife susan were intensely involved in the selection of the property, rejecting an upscale high rise in dallas with security features in favor of a 10,000 square foot estate with lake and golf course views in texas on the market for about 6 million according to emails. the couple wanted to secure a social membership at exclusive golf club and the messages show they sought the purchase of two vehicles and to keep the current owners' golf cart if possible according to one email. one aspect of the property that concerns susan la pierre was the lack of closet space and the men's closet of the master bedroom the emails show. the discussions about the estate are now under scrutiny by new york investigators. some members of the nra's board have defended la pierre and pushed back on this report one said quote, they were just trying to find a safe house to put him in. all of this comes after another report from "the washington post" that says all together, the nra it's affiliated charities and political committee finished 2018 $10.8 million in the red an unusual position for them. back with us, carol leonnig. from the "washington post." separate yourself from your work. what is contained in your work i understand threatens the non-profit status. >> it's pretty serious, brian, because if some of the things that we're seeing we know the attempt to purchase this property is real. we know about designer suits and $500,000 in private jet trips to the bahamas and italy, but if these things are being done that do not have a business purpose, the nra's non-profit status, which is critical to its continuation is in serious jeopardy and what's worse is if wayne la pierre was trying to conceal this from the board, the committee that has a few dish -- duty, if this was concealed in someway, you could make the argument it was a conspiracy to use the funds in this way and keep those that are responsible for reviewing him from doing so. this is a really big problem for wayne la pierre and we will see in coming days what investigators find next, but the pattern is worrisome because of the way the expenses were made using a third party vendor this firm as they try to do with this house. >> given your depths inside this story, is this just a case of peculiar timing toward gun control perhaps rising. >> i don't know that the current situation with the feud relates to the changing nature of the body, people are getting fed up with the mass shootings, the kids dead, high schools, elementary schools, walmarts, people are starting to get weary. we've always wondered in our newsroom what exactly is going to be the moment when people throw up their hands and say this is enough? but the weariness of it is growing. however, i don't think that is related to what's going on, brian, at the nra. i think what is going on there is some people got fed up with the way the spending decisions were being made and said no more. chief among them actually was oliver north who this spring as president of the nra tried to get the board to look into this and was essentially beheaded politically by wayne la pierre and escorted out the door. >> these kinds of problems especially to non-profits often anger the folks who have to scrape to send in a check for $20 as their contribution but someone at the nra thought it important enough to leak the fact that wayne la pierre was on the phone with the president and traditionally their strength has been the get out the vote of like-minded followers efforts. i imagine in their power perhaps they have been undiminished or near undin -- undiminished. >> i can't claim to be in the group but i've been covering for a good long while. i've never seen anything like this, the fishers in the group there had been a solid lock step defiance among members of the nra that the people questioning any access to assault weapons or bump stocks or private unregistered gun sales were unfairly trying to infringe on that constitutional right. i hear so much now in recent days members of this organization saying you know we'd be open to compromise. whether or not that plays to help the president or not and his reelection is to me a very big open question. whether or not the group gathers as a defiant lock step collective for him is an open question to me now. >> the latest reporting from carol lenning barely 24 hours old. a by line we urge viewers to look for. thank you for coming on. >> of course, glad to be here, brian. >>> coming up for us this evening, democrats call out the president directly and he returns it during his visits to the city suffering in the wake of gun violence. >>> we have a president with toxic tongue that embraced the political strategy of hate, racism and division. our president has more in common with george wallace than he does with george washington. both clear language and in code. this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. his incompetence. his inmorality, his carnage stops with us right here, right now. >> so there was that today 2020 democratic candidates using stark language as you just heard to describe the president's racist rhetoric that sentiment there echoed today by el paso native beto o'rourke running for president, also happened to be the target of a donald trump tweet mocking his name and telling him to be quiet. >> you've been very clear you believe the president is racist. is the president a white supremacist? >> he is. he's dehumanized or sought to that do not look like or pray like the majority here in this country. he said i wish we had more immigrants from nordic countries. those from haiti bring aids. he's been very clear about who he prefers to be in this country and who he literally wants to keep out. >> couple side bars, i guess we're saying that now and a lot of democrats want mr. o'rourke to stay where he is and run for senate in texas instead. back to the president, he had this response today before leaving the white house. >> so my critics are political people that are trying to make points in many cases they are running for president and they are very low in the polls. couple of them in particular, very low in the polls. if you look at dayton, that was a person that supported i guess you would say bernie sanders i understood, antifa i understood, elizabeth warren, i understand. had nothing to do with president trump. >> back with us again tonight, jonathan allen nbc news national political reporter and tim o'bryan also happens to be the author of trump nation, the art of being the donald. gentleman, welcome to you both. tim, as trump whisperer, i have a tweet to read you. there is always a tweet. this is about racism just tonight. the democrats new weapon is their old weapon, one which they never seize to use when they are down or run out of facts, racism, they are truly disgusting. they use ds it on nancy pelosi. i will be putting out a list of people so ridiculously accused. what is that? >> this is also the man who two days ago was saying it was time for unity and for bipartisan unson addressing the problems facing the country. this is donald trump reverting to form. this is donald trump gaslighting. it's classic. >> define what that term means. >> when you accuse someone of something you've been doing yourself in order to manipulate them. or put them back on their heels. there is not an expert to many things but trying to make people spin in the wind. it also we need no more. he's feeling this criticism of being called racist. it might have been bouncing off of him but the fact is in numerous occasions, i'm the least racist person in the world. he's saying no democrats, you're racist. all of this started to reside with him and that is evidence of that. >> to quote you, the president had one job today. what was it? >> the president's job today was very simple. go to dayton, ohio, go to el paso, texas, meet with victims of the horrific shootings, meet with law enforcement, meet with the people who treated the victims and console the nation, and he did a little bit of that and then he spent the rest of the day insulting other people on twitter, insulting other people in comments to reporters. he had that one job and it was the one thing he could do to end the day with what surely the white house wanted when it had photo ops in dayton and el paso to be called presidential. this is day 930 i believe you said at the top of the trump administration and it is just like every other day of the trump administration where he had an opportunity to end the day being seen as presidential and did not end the day having done that job. >> tim, joe biden was strong today. cory booker was strong today. as someone with better than working knowledge how donald trump works, you're not advising democrats but how would you advice candidates to come at them, handle things being called racist by donald trump? >> this is a warmup to what they will experience now up until next november. a year from this november. i think what they need to do is stand strong and come back at trump as much as they are coming at them. this is a good one for democrats. they are speaking to the people that care about them. they are speaking about the issues they care about. most of the stuff is not in the president's wheelhouse. he's not authentically epithet emp th-- he doesn't care about race relations and i think he's a profound racist, and so he can't really escape himself in these situations. he's not someone that will heal the nation in a moment like this, and i think that's why you see the democrats surging in this motion but these moments can pass quickly, too. >> john, think about the kind of wave wash of all of this. tonight, equinox and soul cycle are getting membership cancellations because the head of their parent company is having a fundraiser for donald trump in the hamptons friday night. tonight fox news is having a little bit of tamolt tucker denounces white supremacy, all shep smith confirms and denounces it. of this in the orbit of this president. >> i mean, i think we're going through and i think eddie talked about this recently on this network. >> dramatic. >> very dramatically and very profoundly about how we go through this generationally and there is this continuing fight that goes on and we keep seeing it again and again and again and we're seeing it again and donald trump has brought it to the floor and we're confronting this deep division over race once again. and what i think is, what i think is so difficult about this is this president is something we have not seen in certainly in generations, which is a president of the united states who has seen racial division in this country and decided not to paper it over, not to try to heal it, but try to exploit it for his own political gain, for his own personal gain and at the risk of violence in the country. and that is something that is so different than what we have seen not only in my lifetime but before that we heard joe biden before talk about president trump being closer to george wallace than george washington and i think for a lot of americans, i'm 43. i was born in 1975. i know who george wallace is but i didn't watch him in action. that's an old reference. george wallace was never president of the united states. he didn't get close to the presidency -- >> command -- >> didn't get anywhere close to it. the person who was president in the george wallace era was lyndon johnson signing civil rights laws before lyndon johnson, you had john f kennedy working on a civil rights platform and you had dwight eisenhower who sent federal troops to little rook to integrate the high school. so we have had generations of the president acting in a way to try to heal racial division certainly from the presidency even if the campaigns weren't always like that and now you have a president that is seeking to exploit it for political gain to exploit racial tension to speak in racist terms and that is so, so different. >> two journalists staying with us over the break. our conversation continues right after this. smart bed it can ... with your sleep number setting. can it help keep me asleep? yes, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. save up to $600 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. only for a limited time. we're on the move. hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. terminix. defenders of home. >>> we are not called to tolerate each other, we are called to love one another. so we must acknowledge as a country that as much as white supremacy manifests itself in dangerous and deadly acts of terror, it is perpetrated by what is too often a willful ignorance or dangerous tolerance of its presence in our society. >> the last time most of us saw a speech from that ame church was barack obama singing "amazing grace" on an emotional day. gentleman, the lightning round. our closing seconds with you both starting with you, tim. is this the next natural step for the democratic campaign? we have 24 people looking for that nomination. >> i think it's a good issue for the democrats. i don't know how long this will stay an issue. there is a long campaign ahead of them but i don't think donald trump ever thought when he endeavored to make race this torch that he was putting in front of the american public that it would possibly unwind his campaign and limit his appeal to swing voters but he's also finally put an issue in front of democrats that has them all speaking with one voice, which they hadn't been as recently as a week ago. so i do think this has become. >> you glue for the democrats. >> let's be honest, i'm taking your tile and don't mean to. a lot of these democrats want to go home and run for senate. you're not going to be president. >> if they don't win the states, pin the republicans down and make them win minute. spend some money. colorado, texas, the democratic president would love to see them running for senate at the same time they are not ready to give up the ghost. >> 15 more seconds, you concur on tim's view of this issue going forward. >> i'm not sure that i entirely know how it will play out. i know the democrats had a lot of trouble activating hispanic voters and people who aren't registered who are hispanic and i think that's not going to be as much of a problem for them in this next election and that could be really a wakening giant for the democratic party for a long time to come. >> well put. it's always a pleasure. we appreciate you appearing together tonight. >>> coming up in a country on edge with people already a bit uneasy at some public gathering, what happened last night and what may have caused it in the first place. >>> last thing before we go tonight, something that happened a few blocks from our studios here in new york before we went on the air last night. it happened suddenly in the middle of a hot summer night in times square, here is how social media recorded it. >> it was a full on stampede there for a moment. very scary stuff and lots of calls from 911 until the nypd put out word on social media it was by their reckoning merely a motorcycle backfiring, a sound that mimicked gunfire but a lot of folks also suspected it might have been something else, not a backfire per se instead there was speculation that it might have been this. that's intentional. it's a high performance exhaust add on that mimics gunfire. that's what it's designed to do. sometimes it's generic recalled straight pipe exhaust. sometimes it ejects unignited fuel that ends up burning off at the tail pipe or so the owners hope. no matter where you live but especially if you live in urban areas, just be aware of these. our nbc station here in new york wnbc has been trying to bring them to the public's attention through their investigative unit. these are supposed to be illegal. installers claim they are for track use and not street use, problem is they are on the streets and with nerves on edge after mass shootings by semiautomatic gunfire, they can cause panic, they can trigger the gunshot detection devices that a lot of big@ø >>> tonight on "all in" -- >> victims still in the hospital as they grab my arm and tell me tell him not to come here. >> protests in dayton and el paso as the president comes to town. >> i think it was a good decision for him not to stop in the oregon district. >> tonight the political world comes to terms with what we're dealing with. >> it's both clear language and in code. this president had fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. >> and the president and his apologists pretend there is no problem. >> white supremacy, that's the problem. this is a hoax. >>> then congressman al green on his push to impeach the president for racism. >>> plus, what we know about the online breeding grounds for whitem

advertising in the 1950s, highlighting dwight eisenhower's political campaign. she examines what components made them successful. her class is about an hour and 10 minutes. >> nothing perhaps captures the popular memory of the 1950s like the slogan, i like ike. this idea, this pin that so many people wore around the campaign of 1952 and 1956, conveys a notion of nostalgia and simplicity. it really emphasizes this idea of the 1950s as this era of prosperity. and the american people were happy in suburban homes with their nuclear families. i like ike. it's so simple and it conveys that happiness. this idea, however, is a myth. and it is a political construction. the 1950s, in fact, it was a time wrought with racial discrimination, conflict, intense political and social pressures to conform to a suburban ideal that imposed gender hierarchies and mandated heterosexuality in the law. it was a time in which anti- communism targeted the liberal reform impulses of the new deal and often anti-communists took away civil liberties. these are all areas of political pressure in terms of enforcing certain ideals and resisting against those that we will look at next week. i like ike, as a political construct, shifted attention away from those divisions and it created a sense of consensus. in many ways, again, this is a political construction. at the root of it was an innovative and transformative marketing campaign that transformed a military hero into a political celebrity. and he used that attention to win the presidency. often we think of john f. kennedy or ronald reagan as ushering in the television presidency, but, in fact, it was dwight eisenhower. i can't nest the power of television to win the presidency and to put forward his vision of america and the world and this is what we are going to look at today. dwight eisenhower brought several important developments to the modern american presidency, through his leadership style and organizational approach. doing this, he built on a lot of the transformations we already looked at this semester. for example, franklin roosevelt launched the executive office of the presidency and last week we looked at how harry truman extended it. with the national security state. dwight eisenhower formalized it. he ran his office very much like he did the military. the bureaucracy became very entrenched and well executed in the american presidency under eisenhower. for example, he had weekly cabinet meetings and form the office of congressional liaison so that he could have a formal link to the legislative process. this was especially important because throughout the 1950s, the democratic party controlled congress. so eisenhower recognized that to get things done, he needed to have a smooth operation in terms of links with congress. but he also brought this organizational focus to the shifting media environment and transforms the white house into a production studio. to do that, he worked very closely with hollywood figures and madison avenue television executives and advertising companies, to navigate the new, mass medium of television. it ultimately really transformed american political communication during the 1950s. so, the post-world war ii era is a key moment to understand the rise of entertainment, advertising, television and hollywood in american politics, because television really does drastically change the political theme during the 1950s. so the question that i want us to think about today as we study this particular period is, how does television change leadership styles? how does it change strategies of political communication and what is needed to succeed politically? and the key question we will come back to at the end of class is, does television revolutionize the american presidency or does it build on trends that are already in place? so, to get at that question we need to start by thinking about what are the trends that are already in place? does television launch a significant break in terms of leadership strategy and communication strategy? so, what trends were already in place before the launch of television in the 1950s? what does theodore roosevelt bring to the presidency? >> theodore roosevelt increased media connections at the beginning of the 20th century to start formalizing the process of the executive office in the media. >> excellent. >> didn't he also set up the west wing as a source to have the press within the white house -- >> yes. >> in order to have a connection with them, as well. >> yes. he saw the press as an asset, something he wanted to capitalize on to control and help shape public opinion. excellent. caroline? >> he also had the fireside chats, so there was already this idea that there was this personalized president. if every person has a radio in their home he can listen to them and he is using rhetoric that is easy to understand and not super complicated political jargon. >> yes. so franklin roosevelt really brings in this idea of the fireside chats. theodore roosevelt uses the bully pulpit. he creates these relationships with journalists and uses public opinion to launch and advocate for very specific policies. franklin roosevelt takes this a step further. he capitalizes on radio and uses that to create an intimate connection with the american public. and i am going to play you a quick clip, just to give you a sense of what this sounded like. again, thinking about if you were a listener. you were tuning into your radio during the 1930s to listen to your president. this would have been what you heard. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> my friends, i want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the united states about banking. to start with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of deposits and withdrawing of checks. >> what did he do, just in that very simple opening? >> he definitely personalizes the chat. he uses i, you, we, and he creates this personal link between the presidency and the people, so that they feel like he is on their side and they also have a place in this huge, bureaucratic thing that he has begun to create. >> absolutely. personalizing the presidency. that is so key. for those of you who looked at a lot of critics of new deal programs, how does he bypass them with the radio? if someone doesn't agree with a particular program, what is he able to do with radio? >> he is able to directly appeal to the american people with the radio and bypass, say, newspapers with an editorial slant against new deal policies and just to work around old institutions that were against him. >> absolutely. that is really key, thinking about the power that this gives. it creates that personal relationship, the intimacy between the president and an individual, in their home. and then it also allows him to challenge the narrative. overwhelmingly at this time people got their information from newspapers and many newspaper editors were against the new deal, overwhelmingly. newspapers were more conservative, more critical of a lot of roosevelt policies. so the radio becomes a new opportunity to connect directly to audiences. and if you recall, it is not just radio that he uses. he also used theaters and motion pictures to sell certain programs. he capitalized on the newsreels that would've been shown at the beginning of a motion picture feature, but he also worked with a variety of different studios in hollywood to create production shorts like this one, which promoted the national recovery administration. ♪ [ applause ] >> you and you and you, you've got a president now he gave the land a new deal. you hold the new deal. you, and you, and you, shoulders to the plow. he gave us what we asked for, now pay him back somehow. step out front, and give a man a job. ♪ and give a man a job. ♪ in the old name of roosevelt, make the old heart sound. ♪ ♪you take this message straight from the president and give a man a job. ♪ >> you look like a banker who drives a car? >> i drive it myself sir, have a cigar. >> take your cigar and hire a chauffeur and keep a man from becoming a loafer. you look like a grocer? >> no sir, my job is extermination. >> you must give your assistance each a nice weekend vacation. we want you to hire a crowd. you will hang up this sign, it means no rats allowed. and how about you? >> i am a very sick woman. >> oh. hypochondriac. you must get something to soothe you. two for halitosis. one for eczema, bronchitis, or any other kind of an -itis, that will delight us. that way madam, you will help to end unemployment. now, listen to me, everybody. step out, get back, and give a man a job. you know that. i know it. now, step up and give a man a job. you know who is president of the nra? no? i'll tell you. you take this message straight from the president and give a man a job. [ applause ] >> so what does this do that is different from the fireside chats? go ahead, brent. >> it turns presidential policy into an entertainment product. it is very much like the beginning of the whole concept of marketing. >> absolutely. excellent. excellent. kayla? >> i was going to say it is no longer the president advocating for himself, but it is normal people advocating for the president. that normal people would want the president and are very much for his policies. and that he has caused the economic boom and prosperity in the country. >> so the focus, the hero of this story, is franklin roosevelt. he is featured at the end, his portrait, but he has a variety of other people helping sell this. a comedienne in this capacity. a variety of celebrities come out for franklin roosevelt to do this. radio spokesman and personalities are all selling the president for him. again, a different kind of production team in terms of selling a particular policy. excellent. adam? >> it kind of creates the soundbite. you can take different snippets of what the guy is saying. give back to the president or give a man a job. those are easy to remember jingles, so you could put those in radio advertisements that appeal to a general audience. they will remember that message, whether or not they have heard the whole song or whether or not they have heard about the different ways they can help. they will remember, give a man a job. >> absolutely, the slogan. so bringing some of these features, advertising at the time and hollywood, bringing them into hollywood. and the only reason you will not be humming give a man a job later this day is because you will hum "i like ike." it is a lot catchier. >> they also use it as a selling point. usually when we think of selling a candidate, we think of getting votes. but this time it was getting the people involved in a specific policy, so it is helping the common man or the middle-class man to come out and without you, we can't do this, but with you you can be part of this grander thing helping all americans. >> and that is really key, as well, when we think about media and new media and the president. because effective presidents are able to use new media to win elections, but also to govern. to use it as a tool to sell their agenda, as well. making that transition from communication on the campaign trail to communication once in office is really key. this is why what dwight eisenhower does with television is also really important, because he follows that trajectory in terms of using new media to win an election and then reshape how he governs and sets the agenda, as lucas pointed out. again, there are a lot of new possibilities, in terms of presenting an agenda, shaping public opinion and promoting a personality that comes with radio and motion pictures. so, what about television? does television bring something fundamentally new to american politics sent the american presidency? i want to throw a couple numbers out, because i think it conveys how dramatically television grew and reshaped american politics. in 1949, only 172,000 television sets that sold. that jump to 53 million by 1952. this was a dramatic growth of a new technology that forced politicians to grapple with presenting themselves and their policies to voters through tv screens, rather than newspaper articles, radio broadcasts or even these moche motion picture shorts. one of the key things to think about is this growth of new technology caused tremendous anxiety and concern and it is really important to understand that this is post-world war ii that it becomes so powerful. there was deep concern over the manipulative power of propaganda at this time and the ways it could be used to undermine democracy and promote totalitarian governments. after all, adolf hitler and the nazi party in germany had an effective propaganda machine. they were able to consolidate power by limiting new information over new media. so did joseph stalin and the soviet union. these concerns about the manipulative power of new media and even old media, motion pictures in particular, were really at the core of a lot of anti-communist investigations. particularly the ones that featured the motion picture industry in 1947. the central question that was debated in the halls of congress as a variety of actors and studio executives came to washington dc to testify about their political activity, was, were they using entertainment, where they using their celebrity, for undemocratic purposes? one anti-communist film critic told the house committee of un- american activities that clamor is appealing. the communists have made shrewd and excellent use of it for their purposes. they are trying to bedazzle audiences with celebrities. this is a question that pervaded national politics. is entertainment media? motion pictures and this new media, television, that people weren't sure what to do with, is this going to undermine democracy? does it focus more attention on entertainment? can it be used as a way to advance communism? these were central questions that people had periods of these fears of entertainment and propaganda and manipulation are really important to understand, when we see the different ways that politicians grappled with television. some of them embraced television and the opportunities that it is going to offer. overwhelmingly in the 1950s they were very wary of it. the argument that we don't want to manipulate others by embracing advertising, advertising in madison avenue, that really dominated public discourse in the 1950s. for example, the democratic nominee for the presidency in 1952 and 1956, adelaide stevenson, looked disdainfully on the medium that sold presidents as commodities. he wrote, i think it is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. he wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand his message, to deliver longer speeches. to emphasize his oratory, but not to use those quick sales techniques that madison avenue executives were using to sell cereal. he wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand the message that he was already delivering to audiences. so what he did in the 1952 election is that he did allow some advertisers to create some catchy jingles for him, but he refused to be a part of that production. he said if you want to do that the way we did with the radio, that's fine, but i'm not going to appear in the short advertisements. there is no way i can talk about a policy in 30 seconds. so instead, adlai stevenson worked with the democratic national committee and purchased longer chunks of time. so, an hour where he would then go in front of a tv camera and deliver a long speech about a particular policy. well, if you are going to purchase an hour of tv time and you have a limited budget, when will that time be? any thoughts? when can you afford that time? guys? >> whenever it is cheapest. >> absolutely. >> it would probably be late at night, not prime time. >> absolutely. so when adlai stevenson did appear on tv, it was late at night. when the only people watching were perhaps those people who were committed democrats and wanted to watch what adlai stevenson had to say. so that is the only time he really appeared on television and he had his advertising team make adds, that again, reflected radio strategy. i want to show you two of them and i want you to think of how these are perhaps more reminiscent of something you would hear over the radio, then something you would see on tv. >> ♪ old mcdonald had a farm, back in 31. petitions filled him with alarm, back in 31. ♪ and farmer mac ♪ ♪the day in 1931, when he didn't have bread when the day was done. farmer mac knows what to do, election day of 1952. vote along with everyone in the usa. then to look for adlai stevenson to get us on our way. ♪ ♪if it is good for mac, you see, it is good for you and me. all-american loves that farm. vote stevenson today. ♪ >> all right, and one more. ♪ >> ike. >> bob. >> ike. >> bob. >> i'm so glad we are friends again, bob. >> yes ike, we agree on everything. >> let's never separate again, bob. >> never again, ike. >> bob. >> ike. >> will bike ike and bob really live happily ever after? is the white house big enough for both of them? stay tuned. >> ♪ reuben, reuben, i've been thinking, bob and i can now think alike. with the general in the white house, who is giving the orders, bob or ike? ♪ >> bob refers to the other contender for the presidency in the republican party. he was the more conservative candidate and eisenhower was promoted at this time is the moderate republican, so that makes a particular argument about their relationship. what did you notice about these two commercials? caroline? >> all of the visuals were merely like ornamentation. like you mentioned earlier, these could have been played over the radio and had the same effectiveness. also, it doesn't really feature any of the candidates at all. facial, wise periods of people watching it might not make that connection. >> excellent. great. >> this might be looking at things from a modern lens, but they are not very good. like from the base standpoint of getting a stance across, we don't know who farmer mac is. we don't know what caused his farm to be bad and how voting for adlai stevenson would fix that problem. that is a bigger problem with the first one then the second one. the second one doesn't go anywhere. 30 seconds of, can i change the channel to see literally any other political advertisement, especially that really catchy i like ike one, going around that my friends are talking about. >> excellent. >> today where you see like slander campaigns. you are getting nothing across, just bashing everything they do. talking nothing about you, just them. just the negatives. >> that is what is interesting is you do see that negative approach, of let's critique eisenhower and the republican party. that negative aspect is absolutely there, rather than a positive message of why you should vote for the candidate. >> i thought the commercials were preaching to the choir. the first one was saying he is good for farmers, but doesn't say how. it seems like the only people who would say i agree with that are already familiar with his policies. then in the second advertisement, comparing ike and bob, it doesn't explain why. so they are going to see that and have their beliefs either affirmed or offended. >> absolutely. i think that is really important, too, when you think about the democratic party at this time. media is a side component. it is clearly not a priority for stevenson or the democratic national committee at this time. why? where's the strength of the democratic party at this time? where do they win elections? >> may be remnants of roosevelt's coalition from the 1930s -- >> absolutely. >> -- and something else the advertisement pointed out, look back to 1931. look 20 years ago when the republicans did that thing. i feel like in the modern era 20 years ago as a different environment. so it is trying to harken back to decision-making of the past few decades. >> excellent. kayla? >> i was going to say, you can see the contrast between the democratic party and they are continually asking people to look back at what we have done. not even what stevenson has done, necessarily, but what other democrats have done and linking the party together. just that because he is a democrat he will be as successful as past democrats. whereas, with ike's campaign, it was looking to the future. they didn't really have a great past in recent years to look back to that they would want to advertise, so they had to push past that and you can see that contrast here. also a lack of prioritizing media. there is no creativity here, which would make sense, because they didn't prioritize it and that definitely hurt them in this. >> i think that is really important to think about. that the democratic party has been in office for 20 years. that is a long time to control the white house and they had done so in a way that built the coalition with very specific new deal programs that give benefits to voters. that brought workers and farmers into that democratic coalition with all the programs we have looked at. so they were relying on the structures of economic incentives to bring voters to the polls. they weren't worried about getting new voters. they just wanted to capitalize on the coalition they mobilized for the last 20 years. in many ways they are using the same strategies in terms of rhetoric and who they are appealing too, to turn out to the polls. >> on the subject of lack of creativity, one thing i just realized is both of those ads used already commonly known, commonly accepted meters and musical structures, that they just twisted slightly. there really was no creativity at all. >> where they tried to go with familiarity, rather than bringing something new and innovative. again, i think it is really important to think about that there is no one way that is predetermined of how american politicians will turn to a new medium. rather, there are a lot of different strategies at play. even dwight eisenhower was really reluctant to embrace a more madison avenue driven style. and nothing really exposes the initial thinking of dwight eisenhower like his announcement speech. when he was announcing his candidacy in abilene, kansas. he turns out to a park in abilene. it is raining, it is stormy. everyone tells him, we have television cameras set up. you need to go into this bond to deliver your address to tv audiences across the country. and he says absolutely not. i am going to talk to my supporters here. and he was proud that they came out to support him and he wanted to connect to the audience that was in front of him. and so he endured the wind and the rain and all of this was captured on a camera. and here is what it looked like. >> [ applause ] >> 40 odd years ago, i left abilene. since then, i have seen demonstrated in our own land and in far corners of the earth, on battlefields and around council tables, in school houses and factory and farming communities, the indomitable spirit of americans. looking back on the american record through these years, i gained personal inspiration and renewed devotion to america. there is nothing before us that can defeat a people, who, in one man's lifetime, have accomplished so much. >> [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, i believe we can have peace with honor. reasonable security with national solvency. i believe in the future of the united states of america. >> what did you notice here? what captured your attention? kayla? >> i think if you muted this, and, yeah, i think if you muted this, you would think he was out at war somewhere speaking to his troops. i don't know. maybe it is because we know he has a war general, but the wind and the rain and his hair flying everywhere. and he has a very grimmest expression. he looks like a war general, which i think is good for him. that is what he was running on. >> excellent. did anyone know that he actually had hair before you saw this? because you actually see his hair blowing in the wind. later in the speech it started raining harder and he can't really see through his glasses. he is struggling with his glasses as he was reading the speech. robert montgomery at the time is a hollywood actor and a republican. he watched this speech and he was horrified. he recounts how he immediately picked up the phone, called the republican party and said, let me work on your campaign with you. because you are really missing an opportunity to shift from this idea of a military hero and emphasize that you are a political leader. that you want to be president and you can command, not just audiences in front of you, but audiences across the country. so robert montgomery asked, can i work on your campaign? and he was not the only one. dwight eisenhower was friends with lots of executives in new york city that worked on madison avenue. advertising executives. and they also worked diligently with him to revamp his media strategy. he was originally very resistant to this. he did not want to make television such a priority in his campaign, but over and over again figures like robert montgomery and advertising executives like walter reeves emphasized that you need to take television seriously. and you need to see that you can get something across, something meaningful, across to viewers by embracing some of these production tactics. so this is what his campaign looked like, that was very different from adlai stevenson. he had this very catchy spot i will show you in a moment. he also had a very innovative series of campaign spots called, eisenhower answers america. i want you to think about what this does in terms of presenting eisenhower as a personality and how this is different from what we have seen from adlai stevenson and what we have seen before, from previous campaigns. so here is the first one and this is the song you will be singing for the rest of the day. >> ♪ ike for president, ike for president. you like ike, i like ike ♪ everyone likes ike. ♪ ♪for president . ♪ we don't want john or harry ♪ let's get in step ♪ you like ike ♪ i like ike ♪ we get together where we are going ♪ ♪ we go all the way, we all go with ike ♪ you like ike, i like ike, everyone likes ike, for president ♪ we will take ike to washington ♪ >> now is the time for all good americans to come to the aid of their country. >> so this also uses cartoons, but what does it do that is different from stevenson? >> yes, so in this one, it has more of a bandwagon in effect. he even says it is time for all good americans to come together. it brings up the notion that you should join in on this party. >> excellent. >> it is catchy, in that it has a chorus that repeats, rather than the farmers when that relies on the fact that everyone would know that song already. i am in choir and we do a lot of music that is from the 40s and 50s. it already appealed to the masses in that pop-culture idea. >> excellent, and that is a very key point. >> we already commented on how democrats were looking backward in this campaign and republicans were looking forward. i have looked at this in the past and one thing that stands out to me is the sunrise at the end. it really seems like it is a new day after 20 years of democrats in office. >> all of the different visuals. the music, the sound to it, they all emphasize innovation and enthusiasm. creating that bandwagon. join us, this is something exciting moving forward. don't you want to be a part of it. brent? >> i also noticed the visuals were important because there was an allusion to harry truman within the advertisement and that is important. on the campaign trail, even though he wasn't up for president. i think unlike the democratic ads we saw earlier in the lecture, the visuals for i like ike are very important for selling the message of the advertisement. >> so they are selling the critique of the democratic party here. but the emphasis is definitely on that positive message, that you don't want to be part of that democratic party and truman and what has been for 20 years. you want to be part of the future. >> i have two points. first, to continue on the visual point, it really helps with the rewatch ability. i could probably recite, not the bob van bit, but the other piece i could probably recite that from memory after watching it once. but i like ike, it has all these subtleties. i didn't even catch it the first three times i watched the video and i watched it many times. but also it is very personalizing, digging into sort of, i don't know if this had been explored in psychology yet, but the idea of peer pressure. i like ike, why don't you like ike? everyone should like ike. >> absolutely. and you know it is ike. you know the candidate. the personality is at the forefront of all of the catchy songs, the imagery, the slogans that come together to promote ike, the personality here. you don't actually see eisenhower himself appear in this commercial, but walter reeves, an advertising executive at this time, talks with eisenhower repeatedly and says we need to get you, as an individual, into these short spots. he came up with an idea about eisenhower answers america. the notion was these would be 22nd spots, very short. they would have different individuals asking eisenhower a question about his platform, his policies. what he would do as president. this is where eisenhower was really reluctant, because this required him to spend an entire day in a television studio, rehearsing these lines. they made him take off his glasses. he couldn't see, so they put really large cue cards so he could read the lines. they worked on the lighting. put makeup on him to make him look attractive. this is where robert montgomery again played a role in terms of how can we present actors and use all of those tools of the trade to present ike in a very effective way? eisenhower, again, was not happy with this, but he reluctantly agreed to do it because he saw the potential of reaching new audiences. he did grumble along the way. one of the most famous quotes in terms of a critique he offered was that he was exasperated after an entire day of filming all of these commercials and he said why don't you just hire an actor? it really does foreshadow the changes that would come in terms of who would qualify, what we think about for the qualifications of the presidency. i am going to play a couple and i want you to think about all of these production tactics at play with the campaign. >> eisenhower answers america. >> general, the democrats are telling me i never had it so good. >> can that be true when america is billions in debt? when prices have doubled in taxes break our backs? and we are still fighting in korea? it is tragic and it is time for a change. >> eisenhower answers america. >> you know what things cost today. high prices are just driving me crazy. >> yes, my name he gets after me about the high cost of living. it is another reason i say it is time for a change. time to get back to an honest dollar and an honest dollar's work. what you notice from those two clips? >> i noticed they were looking up at him at a steep angle, putting him on a pedestal. like please help us, we need help. >> excellent. great. jenner? >> he kind of uses a unique selling proposition in this, saying short spots. he gives simplistic answers. he has not giving detailed, in- depth answers to it. >> yes, and he is repeating the slogans, you've never had it so good. he is saying what about the cost of living and tries to repeat a specific slogan. it is more specific than the slogan. he can try to refute some of the democratic slogans they are running at. excellent. >> i think today we can laugh at these because you can clearly see him reading the cue cards. i think at the time this was brilliant because it is a person and eisenhower together and they are talking to each other. it goes one step further than the fireside chats. it is not just personable over the airwaves, it is personable in person, with the candidate and the american people have a chance to directly talk to him about their concerns. >> excellent. and again, it does personalize the conversation that ordinary americans are talking with the president. and if you notice the people they bring and allow him to speak to particular demographics. women, african americans, trying to bring them into the republican party. and the timing of these matters. so while adlai stevenson purchases longer chunks of time, later at night, what the republican party did is that they purchased expensive slots that were only 30 seconds long. they were maybe a minute long for ike for president spots. they purchased those at the end of the most popular shows. so going to caroline's point earlier about how this fits in with the popular culture of the 1950s, when a show would end and this would seamlessly come on. you are capturing viewers who already tuned into a television variety show and they continue to watch that because it fits into those themes, the music that they are familiar with hearing. so what this does is it creates an opportunity for ike the personality to reach out to new voters and perhaps to reach out to independent voters or people who previously voted for the democratic party. or to emphasize this idea that perhaps you had not voted before, but you are going to reach out to people as media consumers. that is a word used in their campaign and studies of their campaign in the 1950s. this notion of how do we appeal to voters as media consumers? here is another innovation they brought to the campaign trail that you can find through the video library that has all of these programs. this is their election eve program, where you see richard nixon and dwight eisenhower sitting next to one another, looking clearly uncomfortable on camera, but they went on camera and that is the key thing. they went on camera the night before the election and they talked about what they wanted to do in office. then the election eve special goes from them to scenes of them campaigning around the country. again, it gave that personal connection. the election eve program from 1956 goes a step further, in that they organize ike celebrations across the country. in san francisco, in detroit, and they had cameras they are capturing the surge of support that eisenhower had across the country. and it showed it, linked region to region, through this election eve special and it ended at the white house. again, trying to create a national electorate to overcome different divides. even class and social status through television. trying to build a new constituency for the republican party through that language of it worked. the media analysts after the 1952 election noted that eisenhower and republicans used this new medium more effectively to attract a wider range of voters and to bring in new people to the republican party. i think that is really how you are thinking about a new medium to bring that in that may not have been engaged. and they may not be invested in voting like workers are whose negotiating rights depended on building that new deal coalition or farmers who some of their economic interests depended on those programs. rather, you are appealing to me the consumers and finding a way to get them invested emotionally into the political process. so one of the affected things that eisenhower does is he brings these innovations from the campaign trail to the white house itself and it transforms the white house into a production studio and this is literally. they took the basement kitchen of the white house and turned it into a production studio itself and he had the help of robert montgomery, who went from a campaign advisor on his media strategy to the first television advisor as an official function of the white house staff. and ultimately he found ways that he can capitalize on television and get people interested in what he is doing as an individual from the white house. so he experimented with television the same way fdr experimented with radio and this is on purpose. what robert montgomery talks about is that fdr was innovative and we need to pick up where he left off and take the presidency into the next chapter with television. and so there are a variety of different tactics that he introduces. and in 1954 there is the first televised cabinet meeting and this is available through the c- span archives and i would show you a clip but it is incredibly old and it is not as effective. he was reluctant to have a televised cabinet meeting, that his press secretary said this is a great opportunity and james hagerty said that television allows you to go to the people and go directly to them without them having to read slanted stories by the press. so the same way to use a new medium to bypass critical coverage in the press and allow eisenhower to connect directly to viewers. so he tries televised cabinet meeting, but the issue with that is that it was incredibly skrip did and as you can imagine they set up cameras and they had scripts that they were reading and it was clear that this was scripted. and they talked about the issues of the day and they did so in a way that did not seem like it was a fly on the wall where you are seeing these discussions. rather it was an opportunity to bring other figures of the presidential administration into the i to talk about policy. he also had the first televised press conference and this is a true dish and that has become ingrained in the presidency ever since then. but he had reporters and it was not televised live. he had reporters come in, ask certain questions of eisenhower. but at the end of the day james hagerty and robert montgomery were able to edit and cut what they did not like from this press conference. and so some people celebrated these innovations as democracy in action. others lamented that it was white house censorship and news management and that this was just another form of manipulation. perhaps the biggest innovation that dwight eisenhower brings with television to the office of the presidency is the tradition that still persists to this day and that is the idea of sitting at his desk and giving an address about a national crisis as it unfolded. i'm going to play this quick clip of an address that he delivers during the little rock crisis when the segregationist, who did not want to integrate schools in little rock, but refused to allow african- american students to enroll in their high school. and so ultimately because brown the board had just been recently been passed, dwight eisenhower decided that it was his role as the president to enforce the decision and sent federal troops to little rock to ensure that these african- american students could enroll and to integrate high school in little rock. and he delivers this address during this moment of national crisis. during this moment in which he had just sent federal troops to the south to implement a national law -- or decision that had been handed down by the supreme court and so think about the controversies we looked at in these debates over race and federal authority versus states rights and how they embroiled in american politics over the previous century. it is this moment of crisis. and he uses television to frame what is happening as it is unfolding. and again think about how this is different from the fireside chats that franklin roosevelt used. >> in the white house in washington dc, we present a special address by the president of the united states. dwight d. eisenhower discusses the integration problem at little rock, arkansas. ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> good evening, my fellow citizens. for a few minutes this evening i should like to speak to you about the serious situation that has arisen in little rock. to make this talk i have come to the president's office in the white house. i could've spoken from rhode island where i have been staying recently, but i felt that in speaking from the house of lincoln, of jackson, and of wilson, my words would better convey both the sadness i feel and the action i was compelled today to make, and the firmness which i intend to pursue this course until the orders of the federal court at little rock can be executed without unlawful interference. in that city under the leadership of demagogic extremist, disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the carrying out proper orders from the federal court. local authorities have not eliminated that violent opposition. and under the law yesterday i issued a proclamation calling upon the mob to disperse. this morning the mob again gathered in front of the central high school of little rock. obviously for the purpose of again preventing the carrying out of the courts order relating to the admission of children to that school. whenever normal agencies proven adequate to the task and it becomes necessary for the executive branch of the federal government to use its powers and authority to uphold federal courts, the president's responsibility is inescapable. in accordance with that responsibility i have today issued an executive order direct the use of troops under federal authority to aid in the execution of federal law at little rock, arkansas. this became necessary when my proclamation of yesterday was not observed. the obstruction of justice still continues. >> so what does he do here? what power does this give him? carolyn? >> so he, as the executive, shows that he is listening to what is happening around the country and he is the first one to have a stake in it and he talks about the executive order that he makes and the supreme court subsequently enforced the brown decision, but as the executive he is showing, yes, i am the figure that represents the mayor, and i'm here talking about this first. i think that premise is really interesting and important. >> excellent. caitlin? >> i was going to say he shows very clear executive power in this moment that i am the president of the united states and you will obey this executive order that i'm trying to enforce because of a supreme court decision. this is how our laws work. but he does not directly call out -- he calls out, like, the police in little rock, but he puts the emphasis on the demagogue extremists, the people rather than the local government. he doesn't call out the local government there for not enforcing anything, which i think is interesting because in some ways i think he is trying -- he is not trying to isolate and push them away for not doing their job basically, but he is putting the emphasis on the people and the mob and that they are out of control but is not politicians that are to blame for this.>> why do you think he does that? what is the goal. because that is on purpose. >> i think he is trying to draw them in to the party especially as there undergoing the ship between the democrats and the republican party ideals are beginning to shift and the idea of the southern democratic party is changing and he is trying to pull in southerners and southern politicians into the republican party.>> absolutely. at the same time he is forced to finally take a stance on the little rock crisis and he does feel that it is his obligation to follow the law of the land. but at the same time the republican national committee is undergoing a variety of studies that they call operation dixie where they are thinking about ways to capitalize on the divides in the party between southern conservatives and more liberal northern democrats that want to act on civil rights. it is a calculated move in terms of how he frames it and you absolutely hit on that.>> i find it kind of ironic that he chose andrew jackson of all people when he was talking about the enforcement of a supreme court decision given that one of jackson's most famous decisions was not to listen to the supreme court in the case of the indian removal act. also, one thing he makes very clear that this is to continue off the absolving government point, he makes it clear that this is a last resort. it is very much the people are not listening to what has been said previously so we have to send the army and to enforce this decision because we are a nation of laws and those laws must be followed. >> excellent. >> i want to highlight what eisenhower said at the beginning. he said i have come to the white house when i could have been in rhode island and that is clearly for visual aspen of this address. it is over the radio and it doesn't matter where he is, but he goes back to the white house to lend credibility to what he is saying and to draw comparisons to -- to jackson and he is trying to lend legitimacy to his actions and the actions of the federal government through the location he's giving the address.>> that is very he. he recognizes the visual power of the oval office. and this is something that presidents time and time again will continue to invoke. that visual power. and they will use these addresses from that very same spot to talk to the country in moments of crisis. and so, again, this is a new development that eisenhower recognizes in terms of shifting the power dynamic. and as you mentioned, overwhelmingly it is the president taking that action. and the president dominate television, especially in comparison to congress at this time. so it is part of that visual shift in terms of who is taking action and who is leaving the country and is centering more in executive branch. so to get to the questions that we started today, does television revolutionize the presidency? or does it just build on trends that are already in place? the something fundamentally change with television and the presidency? >> i think it is a mix of both. i know that is not the best answer but there are always trends in the media and even within the presidency we talk about teddy roosevelt being the first personality president and that translates into fdr's radio addresses where he uses rhetoric that everyday americans can understand. but i think the biggest thing with television being introduced into the presidency is the idea of immediate institution. douglas gets into that with kennedy a little more but the idea that there are these pr agencies -- like pr comes into existence in this era because there is a way to use the media , not even paid advertising, to make your message more known and make it credible and make people jump on board and the idea that there are these norms that have to be addressed and understood with television as well. so i think the idea that there is this institution behind television and not just the medium itself. not just the fact that it is visual but that there is an institution surrounding it and what it changes.>> that is excellent and a great observation. and if you notice they showed him walking up to his desk. they showed the tv cameras. and frequently footage of eisenhower in the oval office which show that production seen around it and newspapers would report on that and they would say the real excitement was behind the camera and they would describe what is happening. so there is an education that the it comes with the use of television and the implementation of the studio in the office. >> with television now, it is going to bring more transparency to the executive branch now that they do have visuals and it is being more personable when they get into family's homes and they are gathered around the tv and you get to watch the actual president of speeches and address certain agendas. >> excellent. great. >> i think the use of television is revolutionary in the fact that it changes who can be major party candidates. i think it would've been more difficult for fdr with his polio to be a successful president in the 1950s because his campaign and staff was always doing everything they could to play down his physical ailment. but instead, with television, it is easier to appeal to the people and i think you will see later candidates like kennedy and reagan used two different backgrounds then the party politics that truman or mckinley or any of the other antebellum presidents came out of. and that, i think at is the biggest change television creates on the presidency.>> it challenges party structures and it allows people who can command media attention to not have to negotiate and wheel and deal behind the scenes to gain power and privilege within the party, but to go to the public and this does set up nicely what comes next on thursday, which is the 1960 election when john f. kennedy does exact that. >> what i was going to say is on the opposite side of that, as kelly mentioned in the article that we read, you had things like the eisenhower nixon research group that codified a party machine version too. it was less about being the kingmaker and more about taking what the minted money they had, which was millions of dollars, it was not limited -- they did have a budget and figuring out what the most effective way to spend that money was.>> absolutely. so new challenges within the party itself to think about how to adapt and take advantage of the media landscape and the role of individuals who are not a part of the party can think about ways in which they can foreground themselves to make the party take them seriously. and that is something that stanley kelly talks about notably in this particular accident. i will give you a brief second to read this. it is part of the reading but i think it gets at the core of what you are talking about in terms of changing party structures. that happened because of public relations and television. so if you are a candidate that is looking to win a presidential nomination from your party, it is telling that this is stanley kelly junior and he is a political scientist at princeton and he is one of the first people to actually study this question of public relations and power dynamics. how would this new industry of public relations is shifting and the power dynamics in american politics during the 1950s. this comes out 1956. if you are an astute and eager public official and you want to think about a presidential nomination, how would you take this advice that he gives and apply it to your campaign? >> i think you have to become a celebrity. and within your own right politically or otherwise you could be reagan and be an actor or you could be a radio talkshow host, or you become a political celebrity. but either way you have to make publicity for yourself. and in order to capture the public imagination before you talk about your policies, in order to get that attention that you are a person and that you are seeking this nomination and that you -- you are like a person of the people.>> the importance of a systematic large-scale privately sponsored though the in order to gain political legitimacy. and this is something that john f. kennedy studies and recognizes and uses it in his campaign to win the democratic nomination in 1960. it is notable, as we will talk about on thursday that his challenger was lyndon johnson, the most powerful democrat in the country. and he had all of the authority and working within the democratic party since the time of the new deal, building up his credibility and his a doherty and his ability to manipulate votes in the senate. those were the leading contenders for the democratic presidential nomination in 1960, and it is very telling that john f. kennedy is on the ticket as president and lyndon johnson is on the ticket as vice president. and saw how that came about and the 1960 campaign when we have conflicting ideas about who should have authority, all of that will be the story we look into on thursday. 6 message to troops as they prepare for the assault at normandy. [video clip] soldiers -- >> soldiers, sailors, and airmen, you are about to embark on a big crusade . the eyes of the world are upon you. the hopes and prayer

how presidents and first ladies develop and use the white house gardens during their administrations. this program was part of a daylong symposium hosted by the white house historical association. -- panelnal pattern the white house gardens today, features speakers with lived experiences working in and around the gardens of the white house. we will hear from dr. susan, programs manager for the u.s. botanic garden, jim adams, horticultural manager from the united states botanic garden, and jim mcdaniel, board of directors, like our previous panel, we will hear three short presentations and then our panelists will have a short conversation moderated by dr. chapelle. please join me in welcoming our speakers. [applause] >> thank you, it is an honor to be here today to speak with you about white house gardens. both of our other panelist our named jim and both worked on white house gardens. at the end am going to let you ask questions. we are the last panel of the day and we will finish the discussion by talking about gardens that have been established and modified since the kennedy admini

to cnn's sarah west wood. she is at the white house this morning. sarah, the white house portrayed a very different reception. they even released a sort of propaganda-like video on social media showing a warm reception, but the facts seem to counter the white house messaging here. >> that's right, jim. the white house did try to portray the president's visits to dayton and el paso as sort of a demonstration of the president's ability to act presidential in these kinds of situations. for example, his social media director, claiming that trump had been refused like a rock star at those places. and president trump, as you mentioned, had disputed the characterizations of local officials in dayton while he was flying from dayton to el paso to visit the scene of the other mass shooting, saying that they had mischaracterized his visit, even though democratic mayor of dayton, nan whaley, ohio senator sher odd brown, both of them had been dmikplitry of the visit itself. the eight surviving victims still being treated at the university medical center in texas did not want to meet with presiden

white house under president bush. in that role, he oversaw the integration of dozens of military security and operational agencies all involved in presidential travel, including the u.s. secret service. today he serves as a global director of business development for a show called inc., in international event production company. we had planned to have former secret service agent kathleen, but due to a medical issue she is unable to be here. all of us on the stage tonight wish her a speedy recovery. we are so grateful to joe, nick and larry for making a time as our former agent experts to be with us here tonight. let's welcome them on to the stage. [applause] >> we have a fantastic program tonight, and some really interesting information on the secret service, how it runs at a lot of back stories that you will find fascinating. let's get started. joe, director clancy, i should say. as a former director of the secret service, ku at set the scene of the secret service history. it was not always about protection. frm. dir. clancy: it is unusual for agents to sit on stage. typically,

in the white house and the iraqi people elected someone who is a businessman and now he's president of the united states. it is a lot work. we work nonstop. the president drives the new therefore itand affects us everyday penthouse, quite an exciting place to work right now. >> how is it different? import a photographer's -- standpoint, we get a lot more access. sometimes three or four times a day, sometimes five times a day. bill signings, executive orders, things like that. involved.ravel exhausting, but it is great. i love what i'm doing. i have the greatest job in the world. every time i see somebody that i have not seen in a while, that is the first question they asked. it is very different. and thereng on top are some more differences. i think photographing barack obama for eight years, he was probably the most photogenic president in my generation just thed i look at past year of photographing. and he is probably one of the most iconic no matter whether it back, front, side, the you know who is immediately. it is challenging and fun, but i love photographing. photo that he to

recession with white house economic advisor larry kudlow. then, montana governor and democratic presidential candidate steve bolick comes out swinging against the dnc. will ask the governor about his uphill climb to make the next debate stage, it's a "fox news sunday" exclusive. plus, new fox news polls show senator elizabeth warren surging. president trump is taking notic notice. >> iidocahtas thing and it looked like she was down and out. but that was too long ago, i should have waited, but don't worry. >> dana: we'll a our sunday panel whether biden's frontrunner status is in jeopardy. all right now on "fox news sunday." and hello again and fox news in washington. there are signs of calm after a turbulent week. president trump announced till delay tariffs on chinese goods in order to save holiday sales. that's a seamy commission the u.s.-china trade work could hurt u.s. consumers. if the dow plunged 800 points wednesday but recovered from losses. right now the president is in bedminster, new jersey. in a moment we will speak alive with white house economic advisor larry kudlo

mueller report but because in particular he is not served in the white house. many of the reasons they've been able to block so many advisers on executive privilege grounds because cory lewandowski never served in the white house they believe they could not utilize that. now kaitlan collins reported yesterday the white house had been considering trying to figure out if they could use some executive privilege here but at this point in toim cory lewandowski said on september 17th he plans on attending. >> he's very open. saying if the interview, he has nothing to hide and no collusion and no obstruction. the last time he testified behind closed doors before the congressional committee, democrats were asking him questions and he was refusing to answer questions. there are many democrats who are concerned this could become a circus. >> i think that is one of the big concerns. the times that he's spoken to democrats in the committee has been behind closed doors and at one point he said i'm answering your bleeping questions an the idea there is politics and considering a senate race aga

and the fight for the vote. the white house historical association hosted this discussion. stewart: my name is stuart, the president of the white house historical association. it is my privilege to welcome many of you back to the historic decatur house and the white house historical association for another one of our wonderful lectures. tonight is one of the annual national heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u.s. capitol historical society and the u.s. supreme court historical society, and we have our wonderful colleagues from both tonight, and we would like to welcome you here today. on june 4, 1919, the 19th amendment was passed and sent to the states for ratification. the silver just used the white house as a backdrop to challenge inequity and bring attention to their cause. tonight, we look forward to hearing more about their successful efforts to secure women's right to vote. speaker,introduce our i have a couple of other introductions and things i would like to share. first of all, we have guests from smith college tonight, the washington club of smith college.

. bush white house invited the president of china hu jintao to come visit the white house. it was clear this would not work. it was clear it would be tense from the beginning. i mean in the first instance t chinese wanted hu jintao to get a full state treatment. george w. bush says no, it won't be a state's visit but an official visit, in terms of protocol and poms and circumstances. the chinese wanted hu jintao to have dinner at the white house. george w. bush says no, we want you to come but we are not going to giver y you dinner but how at lunch. the bush's administration, disaster rousley botched to the hurricane. it had to be called off the last minute because of katrina and got postponed until months later. april, 2006, they were at last able to do this difficult thing. it then turned out to be a nice day. jintao got his 21 salute and they brought out the drum cord which was a cool thing to see in the colonial drum core outfit. quickly things start to go off the rail. you can tell that in part. the archive ap footage summing up that day is slugged with this title. "announcer mis-n

case of cnn versus the white house today, but a federal judge postponed his decision until tomorrow. cnn, as you may know, is suing the trump administration for violating the first amendment, the fifth amendment, and for committing multiple crimes of grindelwald, and cnn is hoping to have their press clearance reinstated whereas donald trump is hoping jim acosta will be sentenced to death and now we have to wait till tomorrow. today was also the deadline for election recounts in florida. they've been dragging this thing out longer than a three-hour season finale of "the bachelor," but there are recounts in three races, they still have some sorting out to do. but ron desantis will be the next governor. the senate and the agricultural commissioner, the races for those offices are now headed to a hand recount. palm beach county missed their recount deadline of 3:00 p.m. eastern today. but, you know, you'd think with all the meth in florida, they would count a little bit faster. [ applause ] president trump, meanwhile, is not having a good week. president trump has been spinning in a ta

meases including more tax cuts. ayman javers is at the white house for us tonight. >> reporter: some back and forth over the past 24 hours here at the white house over the idea o a payroll tax cut. yesterday the white house denying the news report that suggested that the white house wanted to move forward on a payroll tax cut. weay, t the president said he's considering it. here is what the president said today talking to reporters in the oval office, and also mentioning the idea ofnding capital gains, another tax cut sroposal the white house considering. >> a lot of people have been talking about indexingy for m nkars, and it is something that i am certainly tg about. i can say that a majority of the people in the white house at the level that does this kind of thing, they like indexing. so it is something i'm thinking about. payroll taxeee i've thinking about payroll taxes for a long time, whether or not we do it n or not is -- it is not being done because of recession. >> reporter: the president there obviously sensitive about the idea tt there's a recession looming. he insists th

c-span3. >> next, nixon admitted ray -- administration officials describe events in the white house in the days before the apollo 11 moon landing. we hear from two former presidential aides who were in the oval office when president nixon placed a call to astronauts neil armstrong and buzz aldrin, who were on the moon. nixon foundation cohosted this event for the moon landing's 50th anniversary. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. as people continue to wander in, we are going to get started because we have a hard queue at 8:48. hello to the audience watching at home. i'm the president and ceo of the richard nixon foundation. it's my honor to welcome you to our east room. we would like to begin as we always do. please rise for the presentation of the colors and the singing of the national anthem. >> present arms. >> ♪ oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight' o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare, the bombs bu

them saying it's not a photo open. instead, the white house releasing its own pictures of the president's activities today while keeping the media away. john roberts is at the white house for us this afternoon. striking contrast there, john. >> yeah, no question about that. beto o'rourke we should point out releasing his own picture of himself with a victim of the el paso shooting as well. you know, this is a day when people in el paso and dayton are still mourning the dead. there's memorial services, viewings and funerals still to be had. the politics is flying back and forth. the president on his way out of the white house talking about sleepy joe biden saying his lost his fastball. the press pool was kept away from the president and first lady's visit at the miami valley hospital earlier today. that appeared to be by design. the white house was trying to not make this look like a photo open but the social media director tweeting out awhile ago, pushing back against senator sharrod brown who had criticism of the president. the white house was there videotaping the whole thin

dayton and el paso shootings cost him support of a once loyal aide. former white house communications director anthony scaramucci tells cnn he no longer supports mr. trump's re-election, and thinks republicans should consider replacing him at the top of the 20 2020 ticket. i talk with david cicilline who is on the judiciary committee, and our correspondents and analysts are standing by. first, let's go to justice correspondent jessica snyder. what more are you learning about the raearrest of the dayton gunman's friend and his role in the attack? >> reporter: wolf, prosecutors say this friend facilitated his access to the firearm accessory used in the mass shooting, plus the 100 round double drum magazine and body armor. 24-year-old was closely tracked by investigators. fbi and atf officials interviewed him hours after the shooting and found out that ee anthony collie was the one that purchased the upper receiver of the ar-15 and the magazine and body armor, and stored it at his own apartment. prosecutors are saying by doing this, he helped betts kept it all out of view from his parent

unleash on the white house lawn. and new controversy around russian agent maria butina. the ceo of overstock.com resigned after publicly revealing his romance with her. our correspondents and analysts are standing by. first let's go to the white house. as recession fears are growing fears are getting stronger. >> the labor department announcing today they are revising the number of jobs more than a half million fewer than previously added to the payroll. when president trump was asked about the change a few moments ago, he says he is not concerned about it and is still optimistic about the economy. our sources tell us behind the scene there is is concern in the west wing. >>> the job numbers have been really good. the economy has been fantastic. thank you very much everybody. >> as economic warning signs are flashing, tonight president trump is sending mixed messages on his game plan. >> i am not looking at a tax cut now. we don't need it. we have a strong economy. >> part of the confusion, whether or not the president is considering a payroll tax cut to ward off an economic downtu

house adviser said a short time ago. >>> new today, the white house insisting economy is in great shape. this morning the president's two top economic advisers appearing on every sunday talk show. their message? do not listen to warnings the economy may be slowing. their mission, to calm wall street and the public after a tumultuous week in the markets. >> i don't see a recession at all. i sure don't see a recession. >> there's no evidence whatsoever that american consumers are bearing any of this. >> we're doing pretty darn well in my judgment. let's not be afraid of optimism. we should not be afraid of optimism. money is flowing into the united states. we're the hottest, really the only game in town. >> we are winning. >> but this week the american farm bureau federation warning that in the last year china has bought $1.3 billion less in u.s. farm products and a new nbc news wall street journal poll shows the president's approval rating is around 34%. and his gun control activists across this country take to the streets. 89% of the voters support background checks. 76% favor red

teams covering every leg of the president's trip. first, let's to go our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. the president has been meeting with shooting victims behind closed doors. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right. president trump just arrived in el paso, texas about, an hour ago to meet with law enforcement officials and some of the survivors from last weekend's massacre. he is at the hospital in el paso. we're waiting to find out whether he will come to the cameras. he did spend most of the day blasting on twitter while flying on air force one, even when the cities of el paso and dayton are yeefg. the president is airing his grievances. facing what is going to be a critical moment, president trump arrived in el paso, texas to try to comfort another city traumatize bid a mass shooting. earlier he spent time in dayton, ohio, where he was pressed by lawmakers to do something about gun violence. >> we can't get anything done in the senate. mitch mcconnell and the president of the united states are in bed the gun lobby. >> reporter: the president was live tweeting a s

speakers expected tonight include senator lindsey graham, henry mcmaster and acting white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney. you're watching live coverage ere on c-span. >> and just waiting for the start of the speak portion of tonight's south carolina republican party annual silver elephant gala. again, live from columbia here on c-span. we'll be hearing tonight from senator lindsey graham as well as the governor henry mcmaster and acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney. we'll have live coverage of their remarks when the event begins. until then, we'll take a look at some of the democratic candidate joe biden he campaigned in detroit yesterday meeting with voters at a restaurant there. and he spoke to reporters. here's a look. cheers and applause] [laughter] crowd chatter] >> how are you, sir? pleasure to meet you. great job last night. absolutely. >> how old are you? >> 16. >> 16? -- read an article about >> i'm going home. >> my daughter. >> how are you? good to see you. >> my house, mom's rules. [laughter] >> thank you. >> hi. > hi, how are you? crowd chatter] >> all ri

this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. cleaning up the internet. the white house calls a summit with big tech firms to counter online extremism. and uber disappoints. shares are down sharply after reporting its latest results. and on the markets, trade in asia nudging up cautiously — following a tumultuous week. and wall street posts its biggest gain in tow months. —— two months. big tech is under the spotlight today, with leading firms summoned to the white house for a meeting on curbing violent online extremism. it comes just days after two mass shootings in the us, which left 31 people dead. the suspect in the texas shooting posted material on the controversial 8chan online message board before the attack. pressure was already mounting on tech firms after the christchurch shootings in new zealand, which were livestreamed on facebook. 51 people perished in the attack. the global internet forum to counter terrorism, set up by firms like facebook and twitter, have already pledged to do more to identify and remove extremist content and says it's rolled out a "cross

jackson, chief white house correspondent for nbc news. tarini parti, national politics reporter for the "urll street l" and our friend joshua green, national correspondent r bloomberg business week. a frank assessment, dan. whatid we learnbout this democrats this week? dan: we learned two things i and think two different things. the first night of debating i think we saw in bolder colors, the ideological division that now exist in the party. you had the two most liberal democrats on stage, senators warren and sanders. d they went against each other and the liberals more than held thr own a i think dominated the detective. i think it was symbolic of ascend ens of the progressive part of the party. it was a substantive and tough deba quite different from what we saw the following night. the following night we saw some of the i sameues discussed but in general, it was into the wields on policy and kind of a circular firing squad and it lefthe party and a lot of people who are active democrats looking for a potential nominee, concern that would they're not seeing what they homed to seet >>d

me. i'm headed to the white house. craig melvin. >> we'll see you then. thank you. >>> craig melvin msnbc world headquarters in new york city. the stakes are higher. that is part of the message joe biden's team is rolling out today making the case that he is the most electable and it comes just as the leads in a national poll. >> we have to beat donald trump. joe biden is the strongest democrat to do the job. no one is more qualified. >>> plus, backing down or hitting pause? the new report that the president is retreating from his pledge to pursue stronger background checks despite his insistent he is not. so, what changed his mind. >>> and clearly concern. the latest sign that the white house is getting even more nervous about the economy, despite public pock luimations that everything is fine. nothing to see here. could yet another tax cut be on the way? we'll dig into that in just a moment. we'll start with policies, polls and the power of television. it's how the 20/20 contenders are trying to leave their mark on iowa and beyond. vice president joe biden's campaign ad out today

the white house on a number of fronts this evening. earlier today the president tweeted about a failed rocket launch in iran along with an image of the launch site. quote, the united states of america was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the launch in iran. i wish iran best wishes in determining what happened. the photo, according to outside experts, would only be available to a government source, so it was classified. earlier today the president was asked about his tweet. >> reporter: did you release classified information by tweeting that photo about iran? >> no. i just wish iran well. they had a big problem. and we had a photo. and i released it which i have the absolute right to do. >> reporter: where did it come from? >> you'll see what happens. you'll have to figure that one out for yourself. we'll see what happens. they had a big mishap. it's unfortunate. so iran, as you probably know, they were going to set off a big missile and it didn't work out too well. it had nothing to do with us. >> we also have a new report from "the

spends another day hunkered down in the white house airing his grievances at mounting controversies. and an ex-cabinet member rebels against his former boss. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a wednesday night. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. i'm steve kornacki in for brian williams, who has the night off. day 951 of the trump administration and we are following an extremely busy evening of news on a number of fronts. we are tracking hurricane dorian, which thrashed the virgin islands and skirted puerto rico today. that storm could strengthen into a category 3 hurricane and threaten florida over this holiday weekend. we will bring you a full forecast in just a moment. today while puerto ricans were bracing themselves president trump was tweeting, calling them and san juan mayor carmen yulin cruz ungrateful. "we are tracking closely tropical storm dorian as it heads as usual to puerto rico. fema and all others are ready and will do a great job. when they do, let them know it and give them a big thank you, not like last time. that

york times" correspondent and cnn political analyst julie davis, also politico white house reporter daniel lippmann. daniel, it seals like the expectations going into this summit have been made so low. what could progress actually look like? >> well, one thing we could see is some action by world leaders to urge brazil to get control of those wildfires which is really concerning everyone in the world. we could see something related to trade in the global economy. they have canceled any communique that they usually issue after these kinds of summits because macron thought there would be too much disagreement. but once trump understands that if there are more trade wars, then you could see the recession come into the u.s. and hurt his reelection chances, then he might respond to some of those -- that self-interest. but it will take a while for him to get that lesson. >> and julie, it follows a rough ride on wall street as the trade war with china sort of blew up on friday. is the president going to find any support among the g7 leaders when it comes to this trade war with china? >> we

white house communications director at least for a brief period of time, but a long-time defender of his former boss's action in the white house, is issuing a warning. you may need to find a new candidate in 2020. >> that news coming overnight in an interview with axios. comparing the @ed. si to the chernobyl disaster. >> so what was the tipping point? and is this a sign of things to come when it comes to the president's supporters? joining me now, anthony scaramucci one-time white house communications director and author of "trump: the blue collar president." thank you so much for being with us this morning. with this axios interview, you compared the president to chernobyl. something of a nuclear meltdown. then you went on to say a couple more weeks like this and country over party is going to require the republicans to replace the top of the ticket in 2020. a couple more weeks like this, you say. a couple more weeks like what? >> well, the last time i was in this chair with you, john, we were talking about the racially charged rhetoric that led to a whole twitter nonsense from

the house impeachment investigation. we're learning how the white house may brazenly try to block lewandowski from testifying. >>> philadelphia standoff. police reveal new details on the man accused of shooting six police officers during a harrowing gun battle that lasted for hours. we're told he had an assault-style long gun and a long rap sheet. >>> and nascar star plane crash. dale earnhardt jr. was onboard during a fiery runway accident in tennessee. we're going to tell you what we're learning about his condition and the crash. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following breaking news. president trump is firing off new attacks against two democratic congresswomen while praising israel's stunning decision to ban the lawmakers from entering the country. top democrats are rallying behind representatives ilhan omar and rashida tlaib. members of the so-called freshman squad calling the move underneath the dignity of israel. >>> also, the ju

. as he left the white house today, the president could not send a clear message on this incredibly urgent issue. >> i have an appetite for background checks. we're going to be doing background chics. we're working with democrats, republicans, and we already have very strong background checks. we're going to be filling in some of the loopholes as we call them, we're dealing with am dids, we're dealing with republicans. we're dealing with the nra, we're dealing with gun owners, we're dealing with everybody. and i think we're going to have something that's meaningful. >> sarah westwood is in louisvil louisville, kentucky. on this issue of guns. are we any closer in understanding what's actually being discussed on gun reform at the white house? >> brooke, we're seeing all sorts of signals out of the white house as you just heard, we heard president trump earlier today, denying he's abandoned his push for expanded background checks. but sources do tell cnn, behind the scenes, president trump has started to cool to the idea, which he voiced frequent support for in the immediate aftermath

headquarters. under way right now, as the president grows more erratic, white house officials are reportedly growing more concerned about his behavior. >>> meanwhile, the deficit growing faster than expected. the bond market just inverted again and manufacturing is weak which means the president may not be able to dismiss the economic red flags for much longer. >>> plus, more arrests for mass shooting threats including a hotel cook plotting to gun down this co-workers and guests. >>> and the amazon is burning toward a report rate careening towards eye an environmental disaster. >>> we begin with the president. at this hour, "the new york times" reports that those who know president trump are growing increasingly concerned with heir erratic behavior. some trump officials in recent days said they were increasingly worried about the president's behavior, suggesting that is it stems from rising pressure on mr. trump as the economy seems more worrisome. here's the behavior, in one single day, president trump doubled down on accusations that jewss are disloyal or ignorant if they vote f

double-double talk. the first when the president confirmed he and the white house are considering a payroll tax cut. yesterday, when "the washington post" reported the white house was considering a payroll tax cut, the white house denied it. they denied it to us and to "the wall street journal." the president just confirmed what they have been busy denying. at this point it's not clear if we should believe anything a white house spokesperson says or what the president says for that matter because they just contradict each other constantly and themselves. we'll have more on the double talk in a second. because a lot of it is on camera and you have to see it to believe it. one spokesperson denied it and confirmed it in the same interview, which is, i mean, that takes skill. that's the best people. i want to begin by discussing and focussing on the other presidential double talk we saw today about background checks for gun buyers. after the mass shootings in el paso and dayton, the president was talking about meaningful background checks. confirmation he's not looking at background che